Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 15:51
Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
51. Behold, I shew you a mystery ] See note on ch. 1Co 2:7, 1Co 4:1. Human reason unaided is of course incapable of arriving at the truth on a point like this.
We shall not all sleep ] There are two other very important readings of this passage. The first, that of the Vulgate and of Tertullian, is omnes quidem resurgemus, sed non omnes immutabimur ( alle we schulen rise aghen, but not alle we schullen be chaungid. Wiclif). The other is, we shall all sleep, but we shall not all be changed, which is found in some important MSS. and versions. There seems little reason to doubt that the reading of our version is the true one. The others have probably arisen from the fact that St Paul and his contemporaries did sleep. But he was obviously under the impression (see 1Th 4:17) an impression in no way surprising, even in an inspired Apostle, when we remember St Mar 13:33 that the coming of Christ would take place during his life-time, or that of some at least of those whom he addressed. Estius gives six reasons against the received reading of the Vulgate, of which two appear by themselves to be conclusive. First, that the reading ‘we shall not all be changed,’ is not suited to the words ‘in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye’ which follow; and next, that this reading is in direct contradiction to the words ‘we shall be changed’ in the next verse.
but we shall all be changed ] “For we who have gone to rest in faith towards Christ, and have received the earnest of the Spirit in the time of our corporeal life, shall receive the most perfect favour and shall be changed into the glory which is of God.” Cyril of Alexandria (on St Joh 10:10). The Apostle explains that this change shall also take place in those who ‘are alive and remain’ until the coming of the Lord. See Php 3:21.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Behold I show you – This commences the third subject of inquiry in the chapter, the question, what will become of those who are alive when the Lord Jesus shall return to raise the dead? This was an obvious inquiry, and the answer was, perhaps, supposed to be difficult. Paul answers it directly, and says that they will undergo an instantaneous change, which will make them like the dead that shall be raised.
A mystery – On the meaning of this word, see the note on 1Co 2:7. The word here does not mean anything which was in its nature unintelligible, but that which to them had been hitherto unknown. I now communicate to you a truth which has not been brought into the discussion, and in regard to which no communication has been made to you. On this subject there had been no revelation. Though the Pharisees held that the dead would rise, yet they do not seem to have made any statement in regard to the living who should remain when the dead should rise. Nor, perhaps, had the subject occupied the attention of the apostles; nor had there been any direct communication on it from the Lord Jesus himself. Paul then here says, that he was about to communicate a great truth which till then had been unknown, and to resolve a great inquiry on which there had as yet been no revelation.
We shall not all sleep – We Christians; grouping all together who then lived and should live afterward, for his discussion has relation to them all. The following remarks may, perhaps, remove some of the difficulty which attends the interpretation of this passage. The objection which is made to it is, that Paul expected to live until the Lord Jesus should return; that he, therefore, expected that the world would soon end, and that in this he was mistaken, and could not be inspired. To this, we may reply:
(1) He is speaking of Christians as such – of the whole church that had been redeemed – of the entire mass that should enter heaven; and he groups them all together, and connects himself with them, and says, We shall not die; we Christians, including the whole church, shall not all die, etc. That he did not refer only to those whom he was then addressing, is apparent from the whole discussion. The argument relates to Christians – to the church at large; and the affirmation here has reference to that church considered as one church that was to be raised up on the last Day.
(2) That Paul did not expect that the Lord Jesus would soon come, and that the world would soon come to an end, is apparent from a similar place in the Epistle to the Thessalonians. In 1Th 4:15, he uses language remarkably similar to that which is used here: We which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, etc. This language was interpreted by the Thessalonians as teaching that the world would soon come to an end, and the effect had been to produce a state of alarm. Paul was, therefore, at special pains to show in his Second Epistle to them, that he did not mean any such thing. He showed them 2 Thes. 2 that the end of the world was not near; that very important events were to occur before the world would come to an end; and that his language did not imply any expectation on his part that the world would soon terminate, or that the Lord Jesus would soon come.
(3) Parallel expressions occur in the other writers of the New Testament, and with a similar signification. Thus, John 1Jo 2:18 says, It is the last time; compare Heb 1:2. But the meaning of this is not that the world would soon come to an end. The prophets spoke of a period which they called the last days (Isa 2:2; Mic 4:1; in Hebrew, the after days), as the period in which the Messiah would live and reign. By it they meant the dispensation which should be the last; that under which the world would close; the reign of the Messiah, which would be the last economy of human things. But it did not follow that this was to be a short period; or that it might not be longer than any one of the former, or than all the former put together. This was that which John spoke of as the last time.
(4) I do not know that the proper doctrine of inspiration suffers, if we admit that the apostles were ignorant of the exact time when the world would close; or even that in regard to the precise period when that would take place, they might be in error. The following considerations may be suggested on this subject, showing that the claim to inspiration did not extend to the knowledge of this fact:
(a) That they were not omniscient, and there is no more absurdity in supposing that they were ignorant on this subject than in regard to any other.
(b) Inspiration extended to the order of future events, and not to the thees. There is in the Scriptures no statement of the time when the world would close. Future events were made to pass before the minds of the prophets, as in a landscape. The order of the images may be distinctly marked, but the times may not be designated. And even events which may occur in fact at distant periods, may in vision appear to be near each other; as in a landscape, objects which are in fact separated by distant intervals, like the ridges of a mountain, may appeal to lie close to each other.
(c) The Saviour expressly said, that it was not designed that they should know when future events would occur. Thus, after his ascension, in answer to an inquiry whether he then would restore the kingdom to Israel, he said Act 1:7, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power. See the note on that verse.
(d) The Saviour said that even he himself, as man, was ignorant in regard to the exact time in which future events would occur. But of that day, and that hour, knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father; Mar 13:32.
(e) The apostles were in fact ignorant, and mistaken in regard to, at least, the time of the occurrence of one future event, the death of John; Joh 21:23. There is, therefore, no departure from the proper doctrine of inspiration, in supposing that the apostles were not inspired on these subjects, and that they might be ignorant like others. The proper order of events they state truly and exactly; the exact time God did not, for wise reasons, intend to make known.
Shall not all sleep – Shall not all die; see the note at 1Co 11:30.
But we shall all be changed – There is considerable variety in the reading of this passage. The Vulgate reads it, We shall all indeed rise, but we shall not all be changed. Some Greek manuscripts read it, We shall all sleep, but we shall not all be changed. Others, as the Vulgate, We shall all rise, but we shall not all be changed. But the present Greek text contains, doubtless, the true reading; and the sense is, that all who are alive at the coming of the Lord Jesus shall undergo such a change as to fit them for their new abode in heaven; or such as shall make them like those who shall be raised from the dead. This change will be instantaneous 1Co 15:52, for it is evident that God can as easily change the living as he can raise the dead; and as the affairs of the world will then have come to an end, there will be no necessity that those who are then alive should be removed by death; nor would it be proper that they should go down to lie any time in the grave. The ordinary laws, therefore, by which people are removed to eternity, will not operate in regard to them, and they will be removed at once to their new abode.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 51. I show you a mystery] That is, a thing which you have never known before. But what is this mystery? Why, that we shall not all sleep; we shall not all die; but we shall all be changed: of this the Jews had not distinct notions. For, as flesh and blood cannot inherit glory, and all shall not be found dead at the day of judgment, then all must be changed-undergo such a change that their bodies may become spiritual, like the bodies of those who shall be raised from the dead.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
They might object: How can this be? There will be many saints alive in the world at the day when Christ shall come to judge the world, they will have natural bodies, such as they were born with, and grew up with in the world until that time. Saith the apostle: I now tell you a secret thing; for so the term mystery signifieth, Rom 11:25; 16:25, and in many other texts.
We shall not all sleep any long sleep: some think all shall die, but some for a very short time, and then they shall revive.
But we shall all be changed, either dying for time, or by some other work of God, their natural, corruptible bodies shall be turned into spiritual bodies, not capable of corruption.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
51. BeholdCalling attentionto the “mystery” heretofore hidden in God’s purposes, butnow revealed.
youemphatical in theGreek; I show (Greek, “tell,” namely, bythe word of the Lord, 1Th 4:15)YOU, who think you have somuch knowledge, “a mystery” (compare Ro11:25) which your reason could never have discovered. Many of theold manuscripts and Fathers read, “We shall all sleep, but weshall not all be changed”; but this is plainly a corruptreading, inconsistent with 1Th 4:15;1Th 4:17, and with the apostle’sargument here, which is that a change is necessary (1Co15:53). English Version is supported by some of the oldestmanuscripts and Fathers. The Greek is literally “We allshall not sleep, but,” c. The putting off of the corruptiblebody for an incorruptible by an instantaneous change will, inthe case of “the quick,” stand as equivalent to death,appointed to all men (Heb 9:27)of this Enoch and Elijah are types and forerunners. The “we”implies that Christians in that age and every successive age sinceand hereafter were designed to stand waiting, as if Christ might comeagain in their time, and as if they might be found among “thequick.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Behold, I show you a mystery,…. Or a secret, which could never have been discovered by reason, or the light of nature, and what is of pure revelation; and which perhaps the apostle became acquainted with, when he was caught up into the third heaven; and is what is never made mention of by any prophet, or apostle, but himself: he prefaces the account of it in this manner, partly to show the great respect he had for these Corinthians, that he treated them as his bosom friends, to whom he communicated his secrets; and partly to excite their curiosity and attention:
we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed; some copies read, “we shall all rise again, but we shall not all be changed”, and so the Vulgate Latin version; according to which the sense is, all will rise again, both just and unjust, but all will not be changed into a state of glory; but the apostle is only speaking of the saints, of whom it is true, not only that they shall rise again, but shall be changed from corruption to incorruption; wherefore this cannot be a true reading: others read the words thus, “we shall all die, but we shall not all be changed”; and so the Ethiopic version and the Alexandrian copy seem to have read; which is just the reverse of the text, and arises from a wrong sense of Heb 9:27 where it is not said, it is “appointed unto all men”, but “unto men once to die”; from which rule there has been some exceptions, as the instances of Enoch and Elijah show; and there will be more at the time of Christ’s coming, for all will not sleep in their graves, or die, for death is meant by sleeping; they will not die as men ordinarily do, and continue under the power of death, but they will be changed at once from corruption to incorruption, from dishonour to glory, from weakness to power, from being natural to be spiritual bodies; this change all the saints will undergo, whether dead or alive, at Christ’s coming; the dead by a resurrection from the dead, and the living by a secret and sudden power, which will at once render their bodies, without separating them from their souls, immortal and glorious: and this reading and sense are confirmed by the Syriac and Arabic versions.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Resurrection of Saints. | A. D. 57. |
51 Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
To confirm what he had said of this change,
I. He here tells them what had been concealed from or unknown to them till then–that all the saints would not die, but all would be changed. Those that are alive at our Lord’s coming will be caught up into the clouds, without dying, 1 Thess. iv. 11. But it is plain from this passage that it will not be without changing from corruption to incorruption. The frame of their living bodies shall be thus altered, as well as those that are dead; and this in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, v. 52. What cannot almighty power effect? That power that calls the dead into life can surely thus soon and suddenly change the living; for changed they must be as well as the dead, because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. This is the mystery which the apostle shows the Corinthians: Behold, I show you a mystery; or bring into open light a truth dark and unknown before. Note, There are many mysteries shown to us in the gospel; many truths that before were utterly unknown are there made known; many truths that were but dark and obscure before are there brought into open day, and plainly revealed; and many things are in part revealed that will never be fully known, nor perhaps clearly understood. The apostle here makes known a truth unknown before, which is that the saints living at our Lord’s second coming will not die, but be changed, that this change will be made in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and at the sound of the last trump; for, as he tells us elsewhere, the Lord himself shall descend with a shout, with a voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God (1 Thess. iv. 16), so here, the trumpet must sound. It is the loud summons of all the living and all the dead, to come and appear at the tribunal of Christ. At this summons the graves shall open, the dead saints shall rise incorruptible, and the living saints be changed to the same incorruptible state, v. 52.
II. He assigns the reason of this change (v. 53): For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. How otherwise could the man be a fit inhabitant of the incorruptible regions, or be fitted to possess the eternal inheritance? How can that which is corruptible and mortal enjoy what is incorruptible, permanent, and immortal? This corruptible body must be made incorruptible, this mortal body must be changed into immortal, that the man may be capable of enjoying the happiness designed for him. Note, It is this corruptible that must put on incorruption; the demolished fabric that must be reared again. What is sown must be quickened. Saints will come in their own bodies (v. 38), not in other bodies.
III. He lets us know what will follow upon this change of the living and dead in Christ: Then shall be brought to pass that saying, Death is swallowed up in victory; or, He will swallow up death in victory. Isa. xxv. 8. For mortality shall be then swallowed up of life (2 Cor. v. 4), and death perfectly subdued and conquered, and saints for ever delivered from its power. Such a conquest shall be obtained over it that it shall for ever disappear in those regions to which our Lord will bear his risen saints. And therefore will the saints hereupon sing their epinikion, their song of triumph. Then, when this mortal shall have put on immortality, will death be swallowed up, for ever swallowed up, eis nikos. Christ hinders it from swallowing his saints when they die; but, when they rise again, death shall, as to them, be swallowed for ever. And upon this destruction of death will they break out into a song of triumph.
1. They will glory over death as a vanquished enemy, and insult this great and terrible destroyer: “O death! where is thy sting? Where is now thy sting, thy power to hurt? What mischief hast thou done us? We are dead; but behold we live again, and shall die no more. Thou art vanquished and disarmed, and we are out of the reach of thy deadly dart. Where now is thy fatal artillery? Where are thy stores of death? We fear no further mischiefs from thee, nor heed thy weapons, but defy thy power, and despise thy wrath. And, O grave! where is thy victory? Where now is thy victory? What has become of it? Where are the spoils and trophies of it? Once we were thy prisoners, but the prison-doors are burst open, the locks and bolts have been forced to give way, our shackles are knocked off, and we are for ever released. Captivity is taken captive. The imaginary victor is conquered, and forced to resign his conquest and release his captives. Thy triumphs, grave, are at an end. The bonds of death are loosed, and we are at liberty, and are never more to be hurt by death, nor imprisoned in the grave.” In a moment, the power of death, and the conquests and spoils of the grave, are gone; and, as to the saints, the very signs of them will not remain. Where are they? Thus will they raise themselves, when they become immortal, to the honour of their Saviour and the praise of divine grace: they shall glory over vanquished death.
2. The foundation for this triumph is here intimated, (1.) In the account given whence death had its power to hurt: The sting of death is sin. This gives venom to his dart: this alone puts it into the power of death to hurt and kill. Sin unpardoned, and nothing else, can keep any under his power. And the strength of sin is the law; it is the divine threatening against the transgressors of the law, the curse there denounced, that gives power to sin. Note, Sin is the parent of death, and gives it all its hurtful power. By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, Rom. v. 12. It is its cursed progeny and offspring. (2.) In the account given of the victory saints obtain over it through Jesus Christ, v. 56. The sting of death is sin; but Christ, by dying, has taken out this sting. He has made atonement for sin; he has obtained remission of it. It may hiss therefore, but it cannot hurt. The strength of sin is the law; but the curse of the law is removed by our Redeemer’s becoming a curse for us. So that sin is deprived of its strength and sting, through Christ, that is, by his incarnation, suffering, and death. Death may seize a believer, but cannot sting him, cannot hold him in his power. There is a day coming when the grave shall open, the bands of death be loosed, the dead saints revive, and become incorruptible and immortal, and put out of the reach of death for ever. And then will it plainly appear that, as to them, death will have lost its strength and sting; and all by the mediation of Christ, by his dying in their room. By dying, he conquered death, and spoiled the grave; and, through faith in him, believers become sharers in his conquests. They often rejoice beforehand, in the hope of this victory; and, when they arise glorious from the grave, they will boldly triumph over death. Note, It is altogether owing to the grace of God in Christ that sin is pardoned and death disarmed. The law puts arms into the hand of death, to destroy the sinner; but pardon of sin takes away this power from the law, and deprives death of its strength and sting. It is by the grace of God, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, that we are freely justified, Rom. iii. 24. It is no wonder, therefore, (3.) If this triumph of the saints over death should issue in thanksgiving to God: Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through Christ Jesus, our Lord, v. 57. The way to sanctify all our joy is to make it tributary to the praise of God. Then only do we enjoy our blessings and honours in a holy manner when God has his revenue of glory out of it, and we are free to pay it to him. And this really improves and exalts our satisfaction. We are conscious at once of having done our duty and enjoyed our pleasure. And what can be more joyous in itself than the saints’ triumph over death, when they shall rise again? And shall they not then rejoice in the Lord, and be glad in the God of their salvation? Shall not their souls magnify the Lord? When he shows such wonders to the dead, shall they not arise and praise him? Ps. lxxxviii. 10. Those who remain under the power of death can have no heart to praise; but such conquests and triumphs will certainly tune the tongues of the saints to thankfulness and praise–praise for the victory (it is great and glorious in itself), and for the means whereby it is obtained (it is given of God through Christ Jesus), a victory obtained not by our power, but the power of God; not given because we are worthy, but because Christ is so, and has by dying obtained this conquest for us. Must not this circumstance endear the victory to us, and heighten our praise to God? Note, How many springs of joy to the saints and thanksgiving to God are opened by the death and resurrection, the sufferings and conquests, of our Redeemer! With what acclamations will saints rising from the dead applaud him! How will the heaven of heavens resound his praises for ever! Thanks be to God will be the burden of their song; and angels will join the chorus, and declare their consent with a loud Amen, Hallelujah.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
A mystery (). He does not claim that he has explained everything. He has drawn a broad parallel which opens the door of hope and confidence.
We shall not all sleep ( ). Future passive indicative of , to sleep. Not all of us shall die, Paul means. Some people will be alive when he comes. Paul does not affirm that he or any then living will be alive when Jesus comes again. He simply groups all under the phrase “we all.”
But we shall all be changed ( ). Second future passive indicative of . Both living and dead shall be changed and so receive the resurrection body. See this same idea at more length in 1Th 4:13-18.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
We shall not all sleep [ ] . Not, there is not one of us now living who shall die before the Lord ‘s coming, but, we shall not all die. There will be some of us Christians living when the Lord comes, but we shall be changed. The other rendering would commit the apostle to the extent of believing that not one Christian would die before the coming of Christ.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Behold, I shew you a mystery;” (idou musterion humin lego) “Let me have your rapt attention, while I tell you a mystery,” a mystery told becomes a revelation, 1Ti 3:15. After logical proof had been submitted, 1Co 15:15-50, to adduce a valid conclusion that the resurrection of dead bodies was reasonable and necessary, Paul turned to his inspired revelation to declare it.
2) “We shall not all sleep “ (pantes ou koimethesometha) “We shall not all fall asleep,” (in our deathly bodies) in natural death. This alludes to those saints living when Jesus returns to the earth. They who look for Him are to be raptured bodily while yet living when he comes Heb 9:28.
3) “But we shall all be changed,” (pantes de allagesometha) All saints shall be changed — Whether in normal process of death and dead corpses one is brought forth, or whether the Lord catches him away bodily, before natural death, like Enoch and Elijah, each shall be changed from an evil, corrupt to an holy, incorruptible body, 2Ki 2:11; Mat 17:3; Gen 5:24; Heb 11:5.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Hitherto he has included two things in his reasoning. In the first place, he shows that there will be a resurrection from the dead: secondly, he shows of what nature it will be. Now, however, he enters more thoroughly into a description of the manner of it. This he calls a mystery, because it had not been as yet so clearly unfolded in any statement of revelation; but he does this to make them more attentive. For that wicked doctrine had derived strength from the circumstance, that they disputed as to this matter carelessly and at their ease; (127) as if it were a matter in which they felt no difficulty. Hence by the term mystery, he admonishes them to learn a matter, which was not only as yet unknown to them, but ought to be reckoned among God’s heavenly secrets.
51. We shall not indeed all sleep. Here there is no difference in the Greek manuscripts, but in the Latin versions there are three different readings. The first is, We shall indeed all die, but we shall not all be changed. The second is, We shall indeed all rise again, but we shall not all be changed. (128) The third is, We shall not indeed all sleep, but we shall all be changed. This diversity, I conjecture, had arisen from this — that some readers, who were not the most discerning, dissatisfied with the true reading, ventured to conjecture a reading which was more approved by them. (129) For it appeared to them, at first view, to be absurd to say, that all would not die, while we read elsewhere, that it is appointed unto all men once to die. (Heb 9:27.) Hence they altered the meaning in this way — All will not be changed, though all will rise again, or will die; and the change they interpret to mean — the glory that the sons of God alone will obtain. The true reading, however, may be judged of from the context.
Paul’s intention is to explain what he had said — that we will be conformed to Christ, because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. A question presented itself, (130) what then will become of those who will be still living at the day of the Lord? His answer is, that although all will not die, yet they will be renewed, that mortality and corruption may be done away. It is to be observed, however, that he speaks exclusively of believers; for although the resurrection of the wicked will also involve change, yet as there is no mention made of them here, we must consider everything that is said, as referring exclusively to the elect. We now see, how well this statement corresponds with the preceding one, for as he had said, that we shall bear the image of Christ, he now declares, that this will take place when we shall be changed, so that
mortality may be swallowed up of life, (2Co 5:4,)
and that this renovation is not inconsistent with the fact, that Christ’s advent will find some still alive.
We must, however, unravel the difficulty — that it is appointed unto all men once to die; and certainly, it is not difficult to unravel it in this way — that as a change cannot take place without doing away with the previous system, that change is reckoned, with good reason, a kind of death; but, as it is not a separation of the soul from the body, it is not looked upon as an ordinary death. It will then be death, inasmuch as it will be the destruction of corruptible nature: it will not be a sleep, inasmuch as the soul will not quit the body; but there will be a sudden transition from corruptible nature into a blessed immortality.
(127) “ Par maniere de passe-temps, et tout a leur aise; ” — “ By way of pastime, and quite at their ease.”
(128) This is the reading of the Vulgate. Wiclif (1380) translates the verse as follows: Lo, I seie to you pryuyte (secret) of holi things, and alle we schulen rise agen, but not alle we schulen be chaungid. — Ed.
(129) “ Qui leur estoit plus probable;” — “Which appeared to them more probable.”
(130) “ Il y auoit sur ceci vne question qu’on prouuolt faire;” — “There was a question as to this, which might be proposed.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
WHAT IS THE STATE OF THE DEAD?
Are They at Present in an Unconscious State?If Not, Where Are They? What Is to Be Their Eventual Destiny?
1Co 15:51.
THE answer to this question is not a matter of speculation, but is with the Sacred Scriptures. Outside of what the Bible says upon the subject we know absolutely nothing. Speculations are easy, but profitless! The pulpit from which this tract emanates stands for the verbal inspiration of the Bible, for the very Deity of Jesus Christ, for the deepening of the spiritual life of the individual, for the dividing of Scripture in the light of dispensational truth, for the personal Return of the Lord Jesus to usher in a Millennium; in fact, for a full Gospel.
But it also stands for a Gospel sanely and Scripturally interpreted, and insists that there be no compromise with those who attempt to contort the plain teaching of the Word of God.
The immediate occasion of putting forth this pamphlet is the persistent false teaching on this subject, and the many letters asking light upon the same, and what the Bible really teaches about it.
A careful study will definitely answer some questions:
ARE THE DEAD IN AN UNCONSCIOUS STATE?
This question the Bible clearly answers in the negative; and, by so doing, presents an adequate reply to three heretical claims.
The first of these heresies is the mortality of an unregenerate soul. Mr. Russell was not alone in this error. Better writers than he have claimed that there is nothing to imply that the life with which Adam was endowed would continue forever, or, for that matter, that the continued existence of the spirit of man is anything other than an assumption, having its origin in heathen philosophy. In proof of this they quote Psa 146:4His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish, and Ecc 9:5-6The living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything.
Their contention is that when the Scripture says, The wages of sin is death, it involves the entire manbody, soul and spiritand that death means insensibility, and that out of this insensibility the dead will never be quickened until the day of judgment, when, if found with sin upon them, the sentence of the second death will be passed, and then that insensibility will become at once complete and eternal.
Their second declaration is that saved souls sleep until the Second Coming. Uriah Smith, a much more intelligent Bible student than Pastor Russell, affirms, Even the most holy and righteous have no remembrance of God, and cannot while in that condition (namely of death) render Him any praise and thanksgiving. He presents such proof texts as Psa 6:5In death there is no remembrance of Thee: in the grave who shall give Thee thanks? and (Psa 115:17), The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence. They further argue that this unconsciousness is proven by Jobs speech concerning man, His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not (Job 14:21).
With all of this Pastor Russell agreed, and going one step further, he associates with the doctrine of soul-sleeping the second probation. This is a favorite claim with all such seconds of his as the Hon. Mr. Rutherford. All who in this life repent of sin, and as the term repent implies, begin and continue the work of reformation to the best of their ability, will form character which will be of benefit to them in the age to come, so that when awakened in the resurrection day they will be to that extent advanced toward perfection, and their progress will be more rapid and easy; while with the others it will be more slow, tedious and difficult. This they claim is implied in the words of our Lord, The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation (Joh 5:29-30). They deny that this judgment is a condemnation, but claim that it is an awakening to receive a course of discipline and correction as a necessary means for their perfecting; but if they are incapable of being perfected, then are they condemned to the second death, or eternal insensibility.
THE HERESY ANSWERED
Seven sentences are required to show the absolute unscripturalness of these claims.
We present them in order and argue them by an appeal to the Word of God.
It savors of such materialism as to leave unregenerate men on a level with the brute creation. Job dissents from this, asking the question, If a man die, shall he live again? and in the clearest possible way declares his faith in immortality by saying, All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. What did he mean? That death effected dissolution, and brought him to unconsciousness, as the beasts? Certainly not! He tells us clearly! The American Revisionadmittedly a scholarly version of the Scripturesreads, All the days of my warfare would I wait, till my release should come. Thou wouldst call and I would answer. It is a plain declaration of Jobs faith that death is a release, that lets him go directly into the presence of God, who calls him. Have we forgotten how, when Jesus healed the man with the withered hand, and was rebuked for doing it on the Sabbath day, He answered, What man shall there he among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? (Mat 12:11-12). Believing in the immortality of a man and in the mortality of a sheep Jesus made this reply; and mark you, it was not when Jesus was in the act of saving this mans soul, but when in the act only of recovering a part of his body, that He made it, suggesting not alone mans mortality, but both immortality and resurrection.
Solomon has been misrepresented by the partial quotation of men seeking to show that their fellows were destined to the fate of beasts by using Ecc 3:18-20, and shrewdly disregarding Ecc 3:21, Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?
The claim of soul-sleeping makes the work of Christ a creation not a redemption. If there is nothing in natural man that is immortal it can hardly be said that in Christ we have our redemption through His Blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. It ought only to be said that we have our immortality, for redemption means buying back something that was lost, the recovery of a life, not the imparting of it. If there is no immortality, what was lost, and what is bought back by the atoning death of Christ?
The doctrine of soul-sleeping renders salvation not a recovery from sin, but from unconsciousness and the grave. We have searched in vain to find salvation so defined. Thou shalt call His Name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins (Mat 1:21). Christ was Gods Lamb which taketh away the sin of the world (Joh 1:29).
The doctrine of soul-sleeping forces into words meanings unknown to Scriptural use. Take the word death for instanceand this is the great word involved in the discussion. Speaking of the Apostles use of the word sleep to imply death, in 1Co 15:51, Uriah Smith says, When we are soundly asleep we are entirely unconscious. That statement opposes all psychology known to men. Sleep is a state in which the body is inactive; but not so with the mind. Think of the mental activities in dreams, and remember the truth of the old psychological claim, If one will but take a moment for reflection, upon waking, he can follow the thread of his thoughts right back into the mysterious slumber whence his body was aroused. It is now known that certain lessons can be imparted to children by talking to them while the body is asleep. The utmost, therefore, that can be claimed for death is that it is a state of inactivity for the body. That inactivity is not unconsciousness. That is why the Apostle could say, She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth, He did not mean that she was unconscious; but he did mean that she was inactive in the service of God. That is why animated souls can yet be spoken of as dead in trespasses and in sins. That is why the father could say of his prodigal son, My son was dead, and is alive again. The Biblical use of death is not unconsciousness, but that of a soul held by the power of sin, as a body is held by the power of sleep.
Contrary to all Scripture, false teachers define death as extinction of being. How can an extinct being know any resurrection? The word perish they put to equally unbiblical uses, and insist that the thing that perishes ceases to exist in any organized form. This is a false philosophy. The prodigal son said, I perish with hunger. He had not ceased to exist! It is the same word that is translated lost in Lukes Gospel, where the silver had been displaced, and the sheep had gone astray. Had that silver ceased to exist? Had that sheep ceased to exist?
Again, the word destroy is made to mean annihilation. But is it not written of Christs purpose in dying that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil? Is the devil annihilated? If so, only Christian Scientists have found it out!
Soul-sleeper definitions of restitution and resurrection have just about as little kinship with the Scripture use of those words, as Mrs. Eddys vaporings have with the Christianity of Christ, or the Science of genuine scholarship.
In their quotations the context is disregarded. It is difficult to conceive of a more unwarranted employment of Scripture than to maintain that the words of Job, There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest, has anything to do with the final state of the wicked. What Job is discussing is his regret at having any existence at all; and his wish that he had died in infancy, and slept in the dust with counsellors, perished princes, and infants who had never come to conscious life. Of course the grave is an untroubled place. A friend, passing a cemetery, said he never saw so many folks together, and so little kicking going on; and such in fact was Jobs notion. But worse still is the quotation from Job 17:13-16, for before uttering a word therein contained, regarding the dismal thoughts that possessed him, he affirmed that they were such as change the night into day: and the light is short because of darkness (Job 17:12). Those who employ it seriously, do the same. But the most censurable quotation exists in the uses to which Isa 26:19 has been subjected, Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. The whole context shows that this is not a reference to people that are in their graves at all. It is Jehovahs answer to the frivolous song of His people, and is a description of Israel in her transgression. And so on, with Scripture upon Scripture, the context is disregarded.
It makes Jesus the creator of immortality instead of its Revealer. One writer quotes the language of Jesus, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish (Joh 10:27-28), and then adds, I wish to speak reverently; but if I have eternal life-existence by creation, Christ might give me happiness, but not life. A sentence like that utterly confounds the Biblical use of the word life, and identifies it with continued existence. The Bible does nothing of the sort. It teaches, He that believeth the Son hath everlasting life, and the life is the blessed life akin to that which is enjoyed by the Son Himself. But unfortunately for the argument of our opponent it does not say, He that hath not the Son hath not existence. It says, He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. Can the wrath of God abide on a non-existent one? We know that the unregenerate man has existence; and a conscious existence at that. Yet Jesus said, He hath not life. What did He mean? Evidently the Christ-life which He alone can impart! It is nowhere said that Jesus Christ is the creator of immortality; but it is affirmed that He is the Revealer of itHe hath brought it to light.
But once again, Soul-sleepers seek to explain away every passage that clearly opposes their philosophy.
Here we come to
THE DECLARATIONS OF SCRIPTURE
One writer in his ardent desire to dispose of inconvenient texts, in a single chapter of a volume makes the charge, five times over, that men have tampered with the true translation of the Scriptures for the purpose of keeping up their theory of eternal existence. But we have now a revised edition of the Scripturesand then, also, we have the American Revision, which is so faithful a translation of the best manuscripts in existence that one of the greatest scholars in America, a conservative, has recently said, Since this American Revision has been put into print, a study of Hebrew and Greek are not essential to the best understanding of the Word of God. The work of these trained and scholarly men was not accepted by Mr. Russell. He was the only true (?) scholar of the century. It is known that Mr. Russell could read neither Greek nor Hebrew. His translations are the joke of scholars. What do the Scriptures say concerning these subjects?
The sleep of which they speak is that of bodies only. Job brings this out when he says, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me? (Job 19:25-27). A literal translation of Psa 17:15 is this, As for me, I shall behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy form. What form has God?
God is a Spirit! Ecc 12:7 reads, Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. The New Testament affirms the same great truth, Mat 22:32God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Paul writes to the Corinthians, Knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord (2Co 5:6-8). What does Paul mean when he says (1Th 4:13, f.), But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope: For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. If their spirits are not with Him how can He bring them down, at the very time when He proposes to call the bodies up? Moses and Elias were with Christ at the transfiguration. Moses spirit was not in the grave.
Paul writes to the Corinthians, So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power (1Co 15:42-43). Of what speaketh the Apostle this? Of the body; for It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. For what is it that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, (namely the salvation of the soul) even we ourselves groan within ourselves, except this to wit, the redemption of our body (Rom 8:22-23)?
What is the argument of the Apostle Paul in Rom 8:10-11, If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. No wonder Paul said, concerning our bodies, This corruptible must put on incorruptionthe prospect of those who sleep in the graveand this mortal must put on immortalitythe promise to those who shall live to see the Second Coming. No wonder he shouts, When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory (1Co 15:53-55)?
In his Epistle to the Hebrews Paul uses the eleventh chapter to rehearse the glorious history of the believing saints, and then makes his appeal, Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us (Heb 12:2). Who are the witnesses? Evidently not only the conscious spirits of the men mentioned, but of all saints in Heaven. The Scripture presents Gods family as in earth and in Heaven and so they are; the living here in body, the dead in Christ, there in spiritto be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. That is why Paul desired to dieto depart, and to be with Christ, which he declared far better. We do well then to stand over an open grave and say, Earth to earth; dust to dust, for it is the body alone that is to suffer this shame and humiliation of decomposition, and temporal cessation.
The Bible presents abiding consciousness for the souls of both the saved and lost. There are some subjects upon which discussion is not necessary; a quotation of Scripture without comment is more conclusive. We take it for granted that our readers are able to understand plain English and we resort to no spurious or special translations. Then on this subject of continued consciousness for both saved and lost, let the authorized Scriptures speak. Matthew presents the judgment of the children of the millennial period, and parts them to the right hand and to the left, on the basis of character as it has revealed itself in conduct toward Gods own; and Jesus says to those on the right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Mat 25:34). For those on the left hand His word is, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels (Mat 25:41). Then, in definition of their state, He says of those on the left hand, These shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal (Mat 25:46). Now I will not take time to discuss the claim that aion means an Age, and in its superlative form, as here employed, is literally ages of ages, except to say that it is the same phrase which expresses the permanence of the Son, of whom it is written, Christ abideth for ever; and the permanence of the heavenly throne, concerning which it is written, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever (Heb 1:8).
Much as I long to shorten the duration of suffering I have not yet seen my way clear to abbreviate the existence of Christ, and the bliss of God, and cause His throne to totter by the touch of time, by such a translation of this word as would suggest less than eternity. Was Christ speaking of an unconscious state when He said, If thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire?
Take the fate of Lazarus and DivesLazarus in Abrahams bosom, capable of thinking and speaking, is certainly both conscious and blissful. Dives, in torment, crying for a drop of water with which to cool his tongue, expresses himself as both conscious and miserableI am tormented in this flame. The attempt to make this a parable, picturing the gulf between Jew and Gentile, and the reversal of estate unto which each was predestined, is an evident attempt to be rid of a Scriptureinconvenient to ones pre-determined opinion. When we turn into the Book of Revelation the language is stronger still; of the wicked it is written, The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night (Rev 14:11). Of course one speaks of the Apocalypse as a book of fanciful figures; phantasmagorial images, unnatural combinations of types and symbols, and of its fervid and extravagant language; but when a man so treats this part of Gods Word, let him not turn back again to it to prove his millennium, his first and second resurrections, or any other point upon which he shall need a clear and ready text.
The Scriptures promise everlasting bliss to believers, and eternal woe to the wicked. Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Is not that Gods call to that kingdom and its city described in the twenty-first chapter of the Book of Revelation, whose glories exhaust the possibilities of human speech, and whose joys are such that tears are unknown; when death becomes a stranger, mourning, crying and pain are no more?
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment. Is not that the woe of which Jesus spake, the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death? Daniel describes the same condition of bliss for believers, and woe for the wicked when he says, Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Day of Judgment, day of wondersHark! the trumpets awful sound,Louder than a thousand thunders,Shakes the vast creation round;How the summons Will the sinners heart confound!
See the Judge, our nature wearing,Clothed in majesty Divine;You who long for His Appearing Then shall say, This God is mine;Gracious Saviour,Own me in that day for Thine.
At His call the dead awaken.Rise to life from earth and sea;All the powers of nature, shaken By His looks, prepare to flee;Careless sinner,What will then become of thee?
But to those who have confessed,Loved, and served the Lord below,He will say, Come near, ye blessed;You forever Shall My love and glory know.
DESTINY IS KNOWN AT DEATH
The Scriptures affirm that it is fixed by that event.
As the tree falleth so shall it lie. The language of Lazarus to Dives was this, Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. That is a sad prospect for the doomed, I grant you. No man living would be more ready than I to find some way of escape for them; but if they would not accept the gracious way provided in Christ, and Gods way fails by mans refusal; and if, having rejected Moses and the prophets and Jesus, and would not hear one, though he went unto them from the dead, it is in vain for Pastor Russell to try to release them by speculative theories. Shall man do more than God?
On the other side, we are unspeakably comforted in the conviction that every one who desires salvation shall have indescribable peace and joy. In a world where there are so many inequalities as in this, it is blessed to abide in the conviction that sweet submission to Gods will has its speedily coming reward, and the righteous may be remembered any moment. Recall Caroline Bowles Southeys beautiful poem, entitled, The Paupers Death-Bed, and who would take this hope from the stricken saint approaching by suffering the time of his translation?
Tread softly; bow the headIn reverent silence bow!No passing bell doth toll;Yet an immortal soul Is passing now.
Stranger, however great,With lowly reverence bow!Theres one in that poor shed Greater than thou.
Beneath that beggars roof,Lo! Death doth keep his state!Enter! No crowds attend;Enter! No guards attend This palace gate.
That pavement, damp and cold,No smiling courtiers tread;One silent woman stands,Lifting with meager hands A dying head.
No mingling voices soundNo infant wail alone;A sob suppressedagainThat short deep gaspand then The parting groan.
Oh! changeoh! wondrous change! Burst are thy prison bars!This moment there, so low,So agonizedand now Beyond the stars!
Oh! changestupendous change!There lies the soulless clod!The sun eternal breaks,The new immortal wakesWakes with his God.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
(51) Behold, I shew you a mystery.It is better to take these words as referring to what follows rather than (as some have done) to the preceding statement. A mystery means something which up to this time has been kept concealed, but is now made manifest (Rom. 11:25; Eph. 3:3-5).
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be Changed.There are here a considerable variety of readings in the Greek, but the text from which our English version is taken is probably correct. The Apostle believed that the end of the world might come in the lifetime of some then living. We shall not all, he says, necessarily sleep, but we shall all be changed. The change from the earthly to the spiritual body is absolutely necessary. To some it will come through the ordinary process of death; to those who are alive at Christs advent it will come suddenly, and in a moment. The dead shall be raised, but we (the living) shall be changed.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. Apocalyptic picture of the glorious resurrection, 1Co 15:51-53 ; triumphal pean, 1Co 15:54-57 ; and admonitory inference, 1Co 15:58.
51. Behold Lift up your eyes upon the glorious picture I present.
Show Utter. The showing was in language.
A mystery A truth hitherto concealed in the eternal counsels, now revealed to men by me. We Who are this we? Alford, and other commentators who are earnest to make out that Paul firmly expected the resurrection to occur in his own generation, say that it means Paul and his Corinthian brethren. We think it as comprehensive, at least, as the we of 1Co 15:49, including all the candidates for the glorious resurrection all who have borne the image of the earthy. And this seems to be a complete reply to all argument drawn from both this we and that in 1Th 4:15. For it shows that St. Paul’s we may cover a whole class a class in which he may eventually fail to be one.
All And this all we consider as comprehensive as the all of 1Co 15:22. St. Paul is here meeting the question, How will it be with those alive when Christ descends in judgment?
Be changed On this change we may note, 1. That it is a change that comes upon and is of the very body then being; the very same matter and substance: 2. That a change does not mean the bringing in any new material: 3. That 1Co 15:53 shows that it consists in the assuming of immortality, with the modifications included therein, upon that very mortal body and no other. We may add that this change illustrates the transition through which man, without sin, would have entered on his full immortality. Death, hades, and the intermediate state, would for him have had no existence. Nay, the “everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels,” would have been suffered by devils alone. Man’s great mistake of falling into Satan’s proper inheritance would have been avoided.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.’
The answer lies in a mystery of God now revealed. And that is that although we shall not all die because some will be living when Christ comes, nevertheless whether living or dying we who are His shall all be changed, shall be transformed. In a moment it will happen, as quick as the eye can blink, for we shall all be changed at the sounding of the last trump. For when that trumpet sounds, the dead will be raised in their new form as incorruptible and undecaying, and the living saints will be transformed.
The ‘we’ indicates the possibility, but not the certainty, that Paul will still be alive when Christ comes. It basically means ‘we who are His’. There will be some Christians living when the Lord comes.
Reference to the last trump in this way would naturally be seen as indicating the end of all things physical. The battle is over. The final trumpet is sounded. It seems to be linking back with 1Co 15:23-26 and saying that at this time God is bringing all things finally to completion. Compare Mat 24:31; 1Th 4:16. It is God’s call to final deliverance for the righteous and final judgment for the unrighteous. However, those who believe in a Millennium and a post-rapture tribulation have a difficulty here, for they have to try to fit it into their schemat by some means or other, none convincing. For in context here it is difficult to conceive that Paul could have spoken like this had he not thought that this indicated the final glorious hour, the end of all things physical (compare 1Co 15:23-26). The whole passage rings with finality. From that time on death is no more. The eternal future begins. He is not obviously speaking of a stage in the process of events, but of the final triumph of God when creation is restored.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Co 15:51. Behold, I shew you a mystery: I tell you, &c. That is, “a doctrine hitherto unknown, and which you cannot now be able fully to comprehend; for we, the faithful saints of God, shall not all sleep,shall not all be submitted to the stroke of death; but we shall all, the living as well as the dead, at the appearance of Christ, be changed in a most happy and glorious manner into the image of our Lord.” See 1Th 4:15.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Co 15:51 . After Paul has with the weighty axiom in 1Co 15:50 disposed of the question , which he has been discussing since 1Co 15:35 , a new point, which has likewise a right withal not to be left untouched in this connection, however mysterious it is, now presents itself for elucidation, namely, what shall happen in the case of those who shall be yet alive at the Parousia . This last, as it were, appended part of his discussion begins without transition in a direct and lively way ( ), designated too as , as dogma reconditum , the knowledge of which Paul is conscious that he possesses by . [90] See on Rom 11:25 .
. . . . ] is held by the commentators to mean: we shall indeed not all die, but all shall be changed . They either assume a transposition of the negation (so the majority of the older expositors, following Chrysostom, also Heydenreich, Flatt, Osiander, Reiche, and van Hengel); or they hold that Paul had ., upon which all the emphasis lies, already in his mind in connection with the first : “ We all shall not indeed die until then, but notwithstanding all shall be changed ,” Billroth, whom Olshausen, de Wette, Maier, follow; or (so Rckert) the meaning is: die indeed we shall not all , etc., so that, according to this view, in pure Greek it would be said: . [91] Three makeshifts, contrary to the construction, and without proof or precedent, in order to bring out a meaning assumed beforehand to be necessary, but which is incorrect, for Paul after 1Co 15:52 can only have applied to those still living at the Parousia , and not, as according to that assumed meaning must be the case, to those already dead. The result of this is, at the same time, that the subject of . and . must be Paul himself, and the whole of those who, like him, shall yet witness the Parousia (comp. 1Th 4:17 : ), as could not but be clear to the reader from . Hence we must interpret strictly according to the order of the words: we shall indeed all not sleep ( i.e. shall not have to go through the experience of dying at the Parousia, in order to become sharers in the resurrection body, but shall remain alive then), but shall, doubtless, all be changed . [92] Regarding the subject-matter, comp. 1Co 15:53 ; 1Th 4:15 ; 1Th 4:17 . This interpretation alone, according to which , in conformity with the quite ordinary use of it (comp. immediately , 1Co 15:50 ), changes the conception of the word before which it stands into its opposite (Baeumlein, Partik. p. 278), is not merely verbally correct, but also in keeping with the character of a ; while, according to the usual way of taking it, the first half at least contains nothing at all mysterious, but something superfluous and self-evident. Our interpretation is adopted and defended by Winer since his fifth edition (p. 517, Exo 7 [E. T. 695]), comp. Ewald and Kling; [93] but it is contested by Fritzsche, de conform. Lachm . p. 38; Reiche, Commentar. crit. ; de Wette, van Hengel, Hofmann, Hoelemann, neue Bibelstud . p. 276 ff., who, it may be added, looks upon the passage as regards text and interpretation as a “still uncertain” one, but decidedly denies that there is here or in 1Th 4 an expectation of the Parousia as nigh at hand . The objections raised against our view are insufficient; for ( a ) something absurd would result from it only on the supposition of the subject being all Christians or Paul and all his readers ; ( b ) to make refer to the whole category of those among whom Paul reckoned himself, that is, to all who should still live to see the Parousia , of whom the apostle says that they shall not attain to the new body by the path of death, is not only not inadmissible, but is established in accordance with the context by the predicate ., which does not include the process of the resurrection (1Co 15:52 ); ( c ) the LXX. Num 23:13 cannot be used to support the reference of to , for in the words of that passage: , the wellknown use of testifies irrefragably in favour of the connection of the negation, not with , but directly with the verb. Equally unavailable is the LXX. Jos 11:13 , where by it is declared of the whole of the hill-cities that Israel left them unburnt, so that the negation thus belongs to the verb alongside of which it stands. In Sir 17:30 also the words (it is impossible) belong to each other; in Joh 3:16 ; Joh 6:29 , again, the mode of expression is quite of another kind (in opposition to Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 106 [E. T. 121]). In our text the repetition of ought to have sufficed of itself to prevent misapprehension of the plain meaning: all we shall at the return of the Lord, in order to our entering glorified into His kingdom, not need first to fall asleep, but shall all be changed living (1Co 15:52 ), so that our shall become a .
[90] Not “a half confession that now there comes a private opinion” (Krauss, p. 169), which he only with reluctance gives to the public. Comp. also, as against this view, 1Th 5:15 : .
[91] Comp. Hofmann’s earlier interpretation (in the Schriftbew . II. 2, p. 654): “Collectively we shall not sleep, but we shall be changed collectively.” Now ( heil. Schr. d. N. T .) the same writer follows Lachmann’s reading, which, however, he punctuates thus: , ., whereby, on the one hand, the universality of the dying is denied, whereas on the other the universality of the change is affirmed. Against this interpretation, apart from the critical objections, it may be urged, as regards the sense, that . cannot be predicated of the dead along with the rest (see ver. 52), and as regards linguistic usage again, that to place the after the conceptions negatived by it (Baeumlein, Partik . p. 307 f.) is foreign throughout to the New Testament, often as there was opportunity for placing it so.
[92] , Chrysostom.
[93] Comp. also Holtzmann, Judenth. u. Christenth . p. 565.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
D. Conclusion in reference to those who survive at the advent. Final exhortations
1Co 15:51-58
51Behold, I shew [tell, ] you a mystery; We shall not all sleep [We all shall not sleep, .44], but we shall all be changed. 1 52In a moment [an atom, ], in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised45 incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53For this corruptible 54must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So [But, ], when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,46 and this mortal shall have put on immortality,3 then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is [was, ] swallowed up in victory. 55O death, where is thy sting?47 O grave [death, 56], where is thy victory?4 [But, ] The sting of death is sin; and the strength 57of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory4 through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know [knowing, ] that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1Co 15:51. He now proceeds to reveal to them something of the process of the resurrection. And what he has to say is introduced in a manner solemn, and calculated to awaken attention.Behold,The word points to an object presented for inward contemplation, and at the same time extraordinary, q. d, behold, look my words full in the facethey contain a truth which we are slow to recognize, but which is true notwithstanding. The thing to be announced he callsa mysterynot simply something hitherto unknown to the reader, but something ascertained only through a divine revelation, or the illumination of the Spirit (1Co 4:1; 1Co 13:2).tell I unto you:This mystery was, that those who are alive at the coming of the Lord will experience a change that shall fit them for participating in the kingdom of God, just as those would who arose from the dead; hence, that that which was said in 1Co 15:49 was applicable also to them. The same truth is set forth in 1Th 5:1-17, save that the idea of a change, which, in the latter text, is only presupposed, is, in our passage, definitely brought to view. In both places he gives his readers to understand that the disclosure made rested upon revelation (1Th 4:15, by the word of the Lord).The received text of our passage has, from the earliest time, created difficulty. 48 It seems to assert that the Apostle expected, not death, but a sudden change both for himself and for all his cotemporariesa thing not reconcilable with actual events. Hence, has been put after , connecting it with the following verb; [so Stanley, who renders: we shall all sleep, but we shall not all be changed] (besides, some put before , which is, perhaps, only a trace of the original position of ); but this reading would be unsuitable by reason of the more exactly defining statement of time, immediately following in 1Co 15:52, which could only be joined to a positive clause. [It would hardly do to say, we shall not all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, etc. It was perhaps with a view of obviating this difficulty that the reading , we shall arise, [found in D., and adopted by the vulgate], was introduced; but which even in this way betrays its non-authenticity, and, besides, is less sustained. In the case of the received text, , ,there still arises, however, the objection, that the apostle could not assert concerning himself and all his readers, or all Christians of his time that they would not sleep, but would rather all be changed, [as is implied here by the position of the negative , which bears directly upon the verb, and not upon the adjective allmaking it mean, all of us shall not sleep]. Hence, a trajection of the negative is here assumed, , standing for , and the clause taken to be equivalent, to ., meaning not all of us shall sleep; and is interpreted in a broader sense, as including the idea of rising from the dead, which is opposed by the stricter signification of the term, and by the more exact intimation given in 1Co 15:52, where it is said that the dead also shall rise. Nor yet can the above-mentioned trajection of the negative be justified on the ground of giving the word , all, a more emphatic position, or from Num 23:13; Jos 11:13 or Sir 17:30 (where it does not occur); and, besides, the assumption of a various range of meaning for in such close succession has something arbitrary in it. The same is true also of the expedient of putting . not sleep, in a parenthesis, q. d., we all (shall, indeed, not die, but yet) all shall be changed. [So Hodge, who, as above, broadens the scope of the verb rendered changed, so as to denote not simply the transformation of the living, but also the reinvestiture of the dead, thus making it apply to all Christians generally. Stanley is singularly confused here, following Lachmann in his text, and rendering we shall all sleep; but we shall not all be changed; yet, in his note, giving a decided preference for the Rec. Text, and rendering it, We shall, all of us, not die, but be changed. In the latter he follows Meyer and Winer (Gr. Gram. Pt. 3 61, 4 f.) who insist that the only translation consistent with Greek is as Kling gives it in his versionWe shall all not sleep, but we shall be changed,The intention of the apostle is to answer a question, which would naturally occur to some in view of the declaration that flesh and blood could not inherit the kingdom of God. If this were so, it might be asked, what would become of the living? While the dead would rise with new bodies, what would become of them who were expecting to survive till the advent. These are the parties whom he now has solely in his eye, and since the great crisis was supposed to be near at hand, he speaks here in the first person, and says we.]. The difficulty in regard to , all, is relieved by the supposition that he had in mind the sum total of the survivors (among whom, he also reckoned himself), to whom alone the whole context relates. But that the words should stand in connection with the same emphatically repeated word , all, when they appear to relate to the contrast between not sleeping and being changed, is entirely in accordance with Greek usage (comp. Passow upon the words 1:176, b, above). They had better remain untranslated.By being changed he indicates the immediate transition from the earthly into the heavenly body, without the intervening process of death and the resurrection. This is to take placeIn a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,Both these expressions indicate the same thing, and set forth, in a most striking manner, the instantaneousness of the transition, excluding the possibility of death coming in between, , an indivisible point of time. In this change a prevenient qualification, a preparation for this glorification, by the operation of the Spirit of Christ, is indeed not excluded; it is only asserted that this glorification would take place suddenly.A second particular relating to the time of this change, is expressed by the wordsat the last trump: . .; is used as expressive of the time in which the last trumpet sounds, as in 1Th 4:16, where it is said of the Lord that He will descend from Heaven ; in the trumpet of God; whereupon the dead will rise. [For this use of , see Jelf. Gr. Gram. 622, 2. fin.]. The word is used to denote the trumpet blast accompanying the Theophanies, and resounding over the whole region of their manifestation, arousing and shaking all things there (comp. Exo 19:16; Isa 27:13; Zec 9:14). The last trumpet refers to that great Theophany, or Christophany, by which all the revelations of God in this dispensation will be brought to their close. That this will coincide with the seventh trumpet (Rev 11:15), is, by no means, improbable; because, there also John is speaking of the end of the world-power, and the coming in of the kingdom of God and of Christan event with which that here mentioned must synchronize. From this, however, we are not to conclude that Paul had in mind the seven trumpets of the Apocalypse, of which he supposed this to be the last; for it is hardly proper to ascribe the peculiarity of Johns vision to the apostle Paul, as though the doctrine of the latter were moulded by the former. Burger.But in no case are we to suppose any allusion here to the seven trumpets, according to which the Rabbis were wont to exhibit the seven stages of the resurrectionthe last announcing the instant when the dead were to stand upon their feetsince the apostle furnishes not the remotest hint of the kind. Moreover, to interpret the trumpet sound of those commotions and revolutions which were to introduce and accompany the judgment; or, as Olshausen does, of a powerful all-shaking operation of the Spirit; or, of an all-agitating , command, or , nod, of God (Theoph.); or indefinitely of some sign that the judgment is to be held, is arbitrary. The trumpet blast, elsewhere spoken of as the signal for battle, (comp. 1Co 14:7), or for assembling, or for judgment, here comes as the signal for the great act of the all-victorious king, who will call his people out from among the quick and the dead into the glory of His heavenly life, and so shall gather them about himself. But Neander says: We shall not be able to take the statement of the trumpet literally. It denotes the call to the last act of Divine omnipotence.for the trumpet shall sound, is impersonal, it shall sound, like , it rains, and the like. It is unnecessary to suppose any definite subject here, whether God, or Christ (comp. the trump of God, 1Th 4:16; and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet, Zec 9:14), or an angel (comp. Rev 8:2).The events following upon the sound of the trumpet are introduced by ; first, the resurrection of the dead according to 1Th 4:16, the dead in Christ shall rise first (comp. above 1Co 15:23), and that, too, in a state of incorruption (comp. 1Co 15:42).and the dead shall be raised incorruptible;then, the change of the living, which, as is shown from what follows, is also a transition into a state of incorruption. [This is in exact accordance with 1Th 4:15. Those who are alive when Christ comes shall not prevent, i. e., take the precedence of, them which are asleep]. But to take the term we as a sort of generalization, by which he did not intend literally to denote himself and his cotemporaries, but only those living at the time of the Advent, and who belonged to an entirely different period, and so, as equivalent to we Christians, i. e., those who shall then be alive [as Hodge and others], is entirely arbitrary. It is unquestionable that the apostle, although opposed to all fanciful expectations and designations of time (2 Thes. 11), regarded the second Advent as near, and hoped to survive to it; nor does what is said in 1Co 6:14, at all conflict with this (see above).The event thus predicted is confirmed by a reference to the necessity of this change, pointing back to 1Co 15:50.For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.The epithets corruptible and mortal relate to the human body in its present state; but they are not to be distinguished, as though the former applied to the dead and the latter to the living (Bengel); for that which he designates as a mystery and has just made known, and that whereupon, therefore, the emphasis lies, is, that we shall be changed. Hence, he is speaking mainly of the living. To put on () a figure borrowed from clothing (comp. 1Co 15:49; 2Co 5:3, not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon). The maintenance of a personal identity, with a change in the quality of the vesture, is here unmistakably implied; according to de Wette, the figure is one of an inward purification (Luke 26:49; Rom 13:14; Eph 4:24; Col 3:10); according to Osiander of adornment and manifestation of the changeboth doubtful. The aorist infinitive indicates the instantaneousness of the process. The repetition of the verb gives emphasis, and preserves the symmetry of the sentence.
1Co 15:54-57. He here announces in a solemn manner, enhanced by the literal repetition of what he has just said, that this event will consummate the victory over the last enemy, and in it will be fulfilled the prophecy which predicts the cessation of all death at that time. [The argument closes in a burst of almost poetical fervor, (as in the corresponding passage, Rom 8:31). Stanley].And when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality,[a repetition in a triumphant spirit, of the description of the glorious change. Alford].then shall come to pass here expresses the thought elsewhere conveyed by , .the saying that is written,The declaration is found in Isa 25:8, in a passage announcing the final consummation of Gods kingdom, and is cited, not according to the LXX., but according to the original Hebrew, except that , he will destroy death, is turned into the passive is swallowed up; and is translated as elsewhere in several passages in the LXX., e. g., Amo 1:11; Amo 8:8, , into victory; while it properly means entirely, altogether (comp. Hupfeld on Psa 13:2), which also suits the passage in Isa. (others: altogether)Death is swallowed up into victory. the same idea that is expressed in (1Co 15:26). It is a remarkable expression, denoting the swallowing up of the all-swallower. (Vitringa). can here be interpreted neither as equivalent to forever, nor yet to entirely; nor can we take it as an adverb, victoriously (Flacius); but it indicates the result of being swallowed upinto victory, i. e., so that victory is gained, and the enemy is overcome. To this the following triumphal song is well appended. An argument may be urged against Osianders local interpretation of , (by which victory is personified and represented as a ravenous beast, as though the expression meant swallowed up in the jaws of victory), from the want of the article, as also from to of 1Co 15:55. Inasmuch as in this whole context death must mean physical death, the doctrine of the restoration of all things, as suggested by Olshausen, has here no support.The reference to the prophecy fulfilled at the resurrection culminates in a triumphal song, in uttering which, the Apostle seems transported in spirit to the moment of that grand consummation.Where,, 1Co 1:20; Rom 3:27.thy sting,By we are not to understand a goad, which death may be supposed to use in tilling his field, since without sin he could have no power over us [Billr. and Scholt.]; nor yet as something which calls out the power of death over us, awakes its slumbering might to tyrannize over us (Olsh.); but death is here figured as a venomous beast, armed with a poisonous, deadly stinga scorpion, for example, [or a serpent like a viper in allusion to Genesis 3, and Numbers , 21]O Death!In this direct address the personification of death comes out more forcibly than in 1Co 15:54.Where thy victory, O Death?In this clause the Rec. Text has , Hades, the kingdom of the dead, instead of repeated. By victory, in this case, we would understand the detention in Hades of those who had departed to it; and this would be destroyed if Hades were compelled to give up the dead in a resurrection. But the reading is perhaps a correction made in accordance with the LXX version of Hos 13:14. This passage undoubtedly floated before the mind of the Apostle, and apparently in the form in which it appears in the LXX in so far as we translate the passage, From the power of Sheol will I ransom them; from death will I deliver them, thus: O death, I will be thy plagues; O Grave, I will be thy destruction. But [translated I in our version] may be also=, as in Hos 13:10, [where it occurs in the sense of , where,] (comp. Frst, Handwrterbuch, s. v., 1Co 1:30). But instead of thy plagues (plural of =the mille vi leti, the thousand ways of death), others appear to have read thy sting, (Frst, s. v., ); and may be translated thy overthrow, viz., that which thou workest; in which case it is= , thy victory, (comp. Schmieder on Hos 13:14). This prophecy opens for us a bright view into the last glorious epoch, like as Isa 25:8; and the thought mounts from the state of not dying, implied in the loss of deaths sting, to that of resurrection from the dead (Meyer Ed. 3). If we now unite this passage in Isa. to the citation from Hosea, which is not inadmissible, then we have here a combination of texts as in Rom 11:8, and eleswhere. [Hodge says the Apostle does not quote Hosea, but expresses an analogous idea in analogous terms].To this triumphal song there is appended, first, a short explanation respecting the sting of death, which serves to confirm the statement that death is swallowed up (1Co 15:56). It affords, says Meyer, a firm doctrinal basis for the certainty of victory over death, furnished in the Gospel system.The sting of death is sin;The parallel here between and . might seem to indicate the propriety of taking the former in the sense above given, viz., that of a goad, implying that that which set death in motion, and rendered it active, is sin. But there is no necessity for this; and the connection with 1Co 15:55, where sting being parallel with victory, cannot denote that by which death is goaded, does not allow of it. The meaning is, rather, that death, like a scorpion, has a sting, a fatal power imparted to it by means of sin (comp. 1Co 6:23; 1Co 5:12). But in relation to sin he addsand the strength of Sin is the law.This has been understood, either of the sin-awakening, and the sin-strengthening power of the law in the sense of Rom 7:7 if.; or of its condemning power (2Co 3:6 ff.; chap. 9); or both ideas have here been combined (Osiander). The first interpretation is the correct one. As death has no sting, no fatal power, when sin is done away, and therefore is destroyed, as death; so sin has no power, is become weak and nullified, when the law is removed. The law is indeed the revelation of the Divine will in the form of a command or prohibition, which both presupposes, and calls out the opposition of man against God. So long as this stands in authority, sin, and accordingly death, has power. And here the question arises, Does the Apostle intend to infer from the nullification of the power of death at that period, that then sin and the law are done away? Or does he presuppose this as a matter evident of itself, and from it draw a conclusion in support of the destruction of death, and for the resurrection? Or does he mean to indicate that sin and the law stand in the way of this consummation? The following verse most readily connects itself with the last supposition; since here God is praised as the one who, through Jesus Christ, ensures a victory over every thing which obstructs the grand consummation; or, more exactly, the victory over death, of which mention has been before made; since in communion with Him we are delivered from the law, and, together with this, from the power of sin, and hence also from death (Rom 8:1). Thus is this complete victory exhibited to us in connection with the redemption secured by Christ, which is nothing less than a deliverance from law and sin; and the whole is referred back to God, the Author of our redemption, with ascriptions of thanksgiving.But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.The present participle , he giving us, may be taken as a vivid representation of the future in the form of the present, showing the absolute certainty of the thing; or it may denote the simple fact considered by itself apart from all idea of time; or, finally, it may represent God to us as the One who continually gives us the victory by taking away the condemnation of the law, and so destroying the power of sin in a life of faith, which is nothing less than a fellowship with Christ, who is the end of the law, and the destroyer of sins power. [This He is: 1. Because He has fulfilled the demands of the law. It has no power to condemn those who are clothed in His righteousness. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. (Rom 8:1). Christ, by His death, hath destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and delivered them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage (Heb 2:14-15). That is, in virtue of the death of Christ, by which the demands of justice are satisfied, Satan, the great executioner of divine justice, has no longer the right or power to detain. If, therefore, it be the law which gives sin its reality and strength, and if sin gives death its sting, He who satisfies the law destroys the strength of sin, and consequently the sting of death. It is thus that Christ deprives death of all its power to injure His people. It is for them disarmed and rendered as harmless as an infant. 2. But Christ not only gives us this victory through His justifying righteousness, but also by His almighty power, He new creates the soul after the image of God; and, what is here principally intended, He repairs all the evils which death had inflicted. He rescues our bodies from the grave, and fashions them like unto His glorious body, even by that power whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself (Php 3:21). Hodge].
1Co 15:58. He concludes with an earnest exhortation to stedfastness and to advancement in Christian activity. And this which he introduces with an endearing epithetMy beloved brethren,he joins first to a thankful allusion to the God who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ; and thus the whole exposition comes at last to its close. This is evident also from the corroborative clause.whereforesince God gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.be ye stedfast unmovable,suffer not yourselves to be shaken from the foundation of your faith and hope by any person or thing. , stedfast,do not turn yourselves from the faith of resurrection; , unmovable,be not led away by others. Bengel.To this still another quality is annexed.always abounding in the work of the Lord,This is not to be taken as subordinating what precedes, as Meyer, who interprets: so that ye distinguish yourselves in furthering the work of the Lord by your stedfastness in the Christian faith and life; but it is still another feature of good conduct resulting from the conviction spoken of in 1Co 15:57, viz., excelling in activity for the cause of Christ. By we are not to understand, either Christs work in a preminent sense, i.e., the church (as the Romanists); nor yet a divine and blessed life (de Wette); but the work which Christ Himself undertook in obedience to the Fathers commission, and which He has commanded His followers to carry forward. In this are comprised both the proclamation and spread of the Gospel and the furtherance of the common weal by the reformation of individuals and of society. It is something in which every Christian should coperate through word and work in his own sphere. Burger. To such activity he encourages them by a general assurance of success.knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.By he means an activity full of effort, involving burdens and self-denials for the advancement of the Redeemers kingdom. All this were vain and fruitless if our salvation were not to be consummated in triumph, if no victory over death and no resurrection were to be hoped for. But since this hope is sure, we know that our efforts will not fail of their goal,that the glorious end will be reached at last which will compensate us for all our toil. The phrase in the Lord belongs, not to the subject (Meyer), but to the predicate, or rather to the whole clause. The profitableness of our labor is established in Christ. In fellowship with Him is its objects surely attained.
[Obs. 1. In order to appreciate the force of the Apostles reasoning throughout this whole chapter, it will be necessary to connect it with that general scheme of historical development in which his great argument moves. In speaking of the other world, or the world to come, it is common to understand by these expressions some mysterious realm existing outside of, or apart from the material world into which we are introduced by death, and where departed spirits are supposed to be now living. Not unfrequently are these terms used interchangeably with eternity. On such an interpretation, it is not easy to see why the Apostle should make a future happy existence so contingent upon the resurrection; or, indeed, what necessity there is for a new body, if in our disembodied state we are so completely introduced into fellowship with Christ, and the glories of heaven. Nor can we discover a reason why the resurrection should not take place with every individual immediately after death, according to the theory of Bush and the Swedenborgians. To keep the soul, that would not be unclothed but clothed upon, waiting for centuries before it can assume its new vesture, seems almost like an arbritrary and needless appointment. But the difficulty here presented is all removed when we come to reflect that the term translated world () is not a designation of space, denoting any particular realm in which people live, but of time. It properly means an agea distinct cycle of years through which certain great transactions similar in kind are carried on to their consummation, and which is to be followed by another of a different kind. Now it is through a series of these ages, or aeons, that Paul considers the work of the worlds redemption to be progressively carried on, all separated by certain great crises. The present age is that period which dating from the Fall is to last until the second coming of Christ. At this point the future age will begin to date, and this will be the age of redemption completedthe age of the Messiahs Kingdom and Glory. And the expression for eternity is generally in the pluralages, or ages upon ages, to signify the ceaseless procession of time, under which conception eternity was ordinarily represented.
From this exposition will be seen the impropriety of speaking of souls at death passing at once into the other or future world or age. That future world or age has not yet come in; and no one can be said to enter it until Christ appears to set up His Kingdom. It is then only that the earth will be in readiness for the reception of the risen saints. And inasmuch as the glory which they are waiting for is to be found here, it will be seen why a resurrection is necessary,why they want a body at all, and a glorified body, since it is in this as their organ that they will be fitted to dwell in a glorified earth and enjoy the felicity of that age. According to Pauls theory, man is not to be separated from this lower creation of which he forms a part and of which he is the lord. The world was viewed by him as one complete whole, termed in Romans 8 the creature () which as it had been involved in the curse of the Fall was also to be restored in its completeness as the theatre of the Redeemers glory. But the time of its restoration could not occur, until all the redeemed of earth were brought in and the number of the elect completed. It is then that the Redeemer will appear to set up His Kingdom and around Him the whole church will be glorified together, none preventing, i.e., anticipating the other in the fruition of future glory.
On such a scheme we discover a foundation for the Apostles argument which identifies a blessed immortality, with the fact of a future resurrection, and seemingly ignores the possibility of an existence in some purely spiritual state, such as Pagan philosophy dreams of. The process of redemption underlying this scheme of history has been well represented by Fairbairn (Hermeneutical Manual, p. 367) under four successive stages and developments indicated by four fundamental gospel terms. We see it beginning in the region of the inner manin the awakening of a sense of guilt and danger, with earnest strivings after amendment (, repentance); then, through the operation of the grace of God, it discovers itself in a regenerated frame of spirit, the possession of an essentially new spiritual condition (, regeneration) this once found, proceeds by continual advances, and fresh efforts to higher and higher degrees of spiritual renovation (, renewing), while according to the gracious plan and wise disposal of God, the internal links itself to the external, the renovation of soul paves the way for the purification of nature, until, the work of grace being finished, and the number of the elect completed, the bodies also of the saints shall be transformed, and the whole material creation shall become a fit habitation for redeemed and glorified saints (, restoration). What a large and divine-like grasp in this regenerative scheme! How unlike the littleness and superficiality of man! How clearly be-speaking the profound insight and far-reaching wisdom of God! And this not merely in its ultimate results, but in the method also and order of its procedure! In beginning with the inner man, and laying the chief stress on a regenerated heart, it takes possession of the fountain head of evil, and rectifies that which most of all requires the operation of renewing agency. As in the moral sphere, the evil had its commencement, so in the same sphere are the roots planted of all the renovation, that is to develop itself in the history of the Kingdom. And the spiritual work once properly accomplished, all that remains to be done shall follow in due time; Satan shall be finally cast out; and on the
ruins of his usurped dominion, the glories of the new creation shall shine forth in their eternal lustre.
For a list of works on this whole subject of the nature and destiny of the soul, the reader may consult the appendix to the History of the Doctrine of a Future Life, by Alger, where nearly five thousand works on this engrossing theme are enumerated and described by Ezra Abbot. Among the best of the moderns are Delitzsch, Psychologie, 2. Ed.; Bleek, Seelenlehre; Heard, on the Tripartite nature of man. Consult also articles in Bib. Sacra, 17:303; 13 p. 159].
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
The risen saints retrospect and triumph. From the heights of a salvation completed the spirit looks back, in thought, on the dangers and difficulties through which it is to pass, and then, in contrast, to the deliverance provided for it in its several essential particulars; and such a review awakens it anew to the praise of Gods grace which through the power of Christ removed all obstacles, and gave it that victory in which it is to obtain the fulfilment of all the divine promises. But from this also there springs the earnest determination to remain stedfast in the maintenance of the grace conferred, and constantly to excel in furthering the great word of salvation in the joyful confidence that every sincere effort will result in securing at last a perfect communion with Christ who in His own person has overcome all obstacles and invites His followers to share in His victory.
The attainment of our salvation proceeds through three inseparably connected stagesthe doing away: 1. of the law; 2. of sin; 3. of death. The law is done away (so far as it calls out and intensifies an opposition to God), through the revelation of the perfect love of God, who sent His only-begotten Son, the holy and righteous One, to take upon himself and endure the curse of the law, or to become sin and a curse for us, and so to redeem us from curse and from judgment, and to secure our justification. Thus, sin is forgiven; we are accepted in the beloved; and a loving child-like communion is established which involves a participation in the divine glory. Through the manifestation of this love, the law is changed from being a summary of stringent exactions and prohibitions enforced by fearful threatenings, into a proclamation of the will of a Father now reconciled to us in Christ, and who is thus recognized as meaning kindness in every requirement, who forbids nothing but what is injurious, enjoins nothing but what is necessary and beneficial, obliges us to suffer nothing but what is subservient to our best good, and disciplines us because He loves us.By this means, also, the power of sin is broken, and instead thereof a disposition to love awakened, which grows ever stronger and stronger, masters more and more perfectly all opposing tendencies and impulses, and brings the whole life with all its organs and powers more resolutely and undividedly, more willingly and joyfully, into the service of Gods holy love, and thus promotes the sanctification of the whole man.By this same means also death is robbed of its sting. For believers who pursue after holiness, death appears no longer as an extinction of life causing pain and fear, and making us dreary and desolate; but as an entrance into the rest of Christ, which leads to a glorious renewal of life (comp. Joh 8:51; Joh 11:25 ff.; Rom 6:8 ff; Rom 8:11; Rom 8:38 ff.), in which our perfect victory over death, and, together with this, the consummation of our redemption, is made gloriously manifest.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Starke:
1Co 15:51. Hed.: Who then will fear the last great day! To become whole at once, is this a plague? In an instant mortal will be swallowed up of life.At the resurrection men will have indeed new, yet not other bodies; their own, only changed.
1Co 15:53. What after all is beauty of body, and the finest garments; all must molder;the resurrection will, for the first time, clothe us in beautiful and lasting array.
1Co 15:54 f. There are three it is finished: 1. at the creation,for then all was very good; 2. at the redemptionachieved through the blood of Christ; and that was better; 3. at our sanctification and the eternal joy and glory which follow thereupon; which is the best of all. Then our mouth will be full of laughter and our tongue full of praise.Death lies prostrate, and has now no more power. Life leaps aloft and exclaims: Thus subdued, where, O Death, art thou now? and where that sting wherewith thou didst give men their deadly wound?Believers are now delivered from all dying. Wondrous triumph!
1Co 15:57. Through His perfect obedience and atoning work Christ has rendered satisfaction for our sins, and conquered death. Of this fact His victorious resurrection is a witness. This victory becomes ours through faith, and gives us the power to overcome sin and death likewise. This will be made manifest when Christ has raised our bodies to glory.No one can confidently expect this victory but he who can say, my faith also has overcome the world both within and without me (1Jn 5:4 f.).What can be more comforting to a Christian than that there should be granted him such a victory over physical death through Christthat from being the punishment of sin it should become to him a blessing, a happy exit from all misery, and a joyful entrance into glory, and so, a triumph?
1Co 15:58. So long as we do not seek to become steadfast in Christianity, to be well grounded in faith, upon the Rock Christ, and to be immoveable against all the storms of temptation, so long will all labor in the practice of Christianity be, for the most part, useless. Indeed, not so much as earnest labor, as idleness and sleepy existence.
Berlenb. Bibel:If we do not put on Jesus Christ and the new man from day to day, then the corruptible and the new incorruptible humanity of the glorified Saviour will not be so speedily fused together. He who would share in this much wished for change must have his heart changed here.The art of transformation God alone understands. What happens now is only preparatory. Hence, no one must regard such divine operations and purifications as a burden.
1Co 15:54. The victory of Christ will then first be fulfilled in us when the corruptible shall have put on incorruption (regeneration in a complete sense Mat 19:28). This victory has already taken place; but it must be fulfilled in all for whom it has been achieved separately and actually, both in this world and in the next. It will be actually begun in each one, when, in his soul, sin and its wages, death, have been subdued in victory over sin, through Christs new resurrection power, and, on the other hand, an innocent divine life has been begotten in us.
1Co 15:55. A consolation which is now concealed from our eyes, in order that we may walk by faith. Death must be disarmed of its means of hurt if we can appropriate this language.
1Co 15:56. This he introduces after his song of triumph in order that we may not jubilate after too wild a sort. If the sting of death is to be entirely renounced, sin itself must be once for all entirely annihilated.The power of sin shows itself in the torments of conscience and in its urging men against their will and better resolutions to do what they know to be wrong. This power, especially that of accusation and condemnation, which every penitent experiences at his conversion is given to sin by the law, when it shows to him what he has merited from God, in all his thoughts, and words, and deeds. And although now such a person earnestly resolve to deliver himself from sin and begin to guard himself against his old habits, and to strive against his evil inclinations, he will nevertheless not often succeed. The law of sin in the members strives against the spirit, so that we do not that which we gladly would.
1Co 15:57. God gives us victory, one after the other. If we at any time have already overcome any lust, this happened not from any power of nature, but of grace which has been secured through our Lord Jesus Christ. He who has this grace strong in him may boast in the Lord and in the power of His might.What boots it, though we daily console ourselves with all these sayings respecting Christs victory, and are yet not daily obedient to him?Our enemies are not overcome for us in any such way that they need not also be overcome in us through the power of Christ.
1Co 15:58. Firm and immoveable shall we become, if we earnestly hold to the centre.Striving, watching, praying, the work of faith and the labor of lovethis is what will preserve God to us. Let us only be found diligent therein.The work is ours in respect to its exercises; it is not ours in respect to its origin.
Rieger:
1Co 15:51 ff. Every divine truth furnishes its own contribution to faith, partly, in preparing the heart for it; partly, in actually awakening it; partly, in promoting its growth; partly, in furthering its activity and fruitfulness; and partly, in leading it on to its glorious end.
1Co 15:54 ff. Gods work cannot remain unfinished. The patient waiting of believers, and the sighing of Gods creatures will not remain unheard. But for this, we must give God time.The power of hope brought to light we have to enjoy in the extremities of death; but the song of victory: O, Death, where is thy sting? will chiefly be sung amid the joys of the resurrection. There is no encouragement in the scriptures for a haughty contempt of death. Even in the New Testament, all comfort in reference to it, is derived from communion with Christ, and from that fellowship in love, in which death can effect no break nor separation.
1Co 15:56. Faith bows itself beneath the judgment of God; seizes the shield of the hope of salvation; and every where shows that it has more to do with God, and His honor, and the sanctification of His name and the fulfilment of His work, and that it is enough for us that with all this, God has intimately in woven our salvation also. The sting, by which Death can do us the most hurt, is sin, or the sentence, that death through sin has come into this world, and is now its wages. And the law on its awakening in the conscience, first shows this enemy in its full strength. Do not, however, try to avoid it on this account. He who shrinks from entering into the pain and anguish occasioned by the law, will be deficient in consolation and joyful thanksgiving to God. To become free from the fear of death at a bound, would to many a one seem right; but the victory given us through Christ, has its stages. We are called out of sin into grace, die unto the law in its power, come into subjection to Christ Jesus and the rule of His Spirit, learn thereby how there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, and also what is revealed to our hope even for this mortal body. Therefore (1Co 15:58), he who has so learned to know sin and grace, death and life, and discovers in himself the germ of eternal life through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, can stand fast against all inward fickleness, be immovable against external temptations, and avoid all weariness, and instead, rather abound more and more in the work of the Lord, faith in whom is the spring of every thing else.
Heubner:
1Co 15:54 f. The Christian experiences indeed the natural dread of death, but not its inward terrors. Through Christ he becomes stronger than nature. Death has for him no more terror, because it brings to him no destruction of being, no judgment, no pain and punishment. Such a song of triumph no wisdom of this world can strike up. Only the fact of redemption tunes us to such peans.
1Co 15:56. That which makes death so fearful is the consciousness of sin, and the fear of damnation. But sin is terrible on account of the holy law of God. This law shows us at once its guilt and its curse.
1Co 15:57. With this song of praise the Christian celebrates the victory over these great enemies, Death, Sin and Satan. These enemies Christ has already overcome, and celebrated His triumph in the unseen world (Col 2:15). Without his aid, no one could overcome these mighty enemies. This victory is not our merit, but a grace given us by God through Christ. The atonement, and the hope of eternal life are closely connected. Everything which Christ has is ours, and this should be our daily medicine.
1Co 15:58. The work of our Lord is, a. what works in us; b. what we bring to pass in His strength. No pure, humble work is ever in vain. The Lords work succeeds, and he does not suffer his followers work to fail.
W. F. Besser:
1Co 15:55. For him whom hell no more frights with its torments there is a victory over hell also at the last day, when Christ will be revealed as the Man who has the keys of death and of hell. Whence now have we the right, and derive we the courage to sing such a song of triumph as we feel welling up even in this our mortal body? It stands not in our power to avoid the sting of death; but what is impossible with us has been made possible by God in Christ.
1Co 15:58. In order to become stedfast through faith in the hope of the Gospel, and to stand immovable in the citadel of Apostolic doctrine we should seek the aid of the Holy Ghost. But in the Christian life there is no firm endurance without constant watchfulness. If we would abound in the work of the Lord, we must allow the work of His great love to operate in us, and stand in faithful co-operation with that love, in order that every one according to his gift and office, may devote himself to the edification of the Church, with the word of truth and with the labor of love (1Co 12:14). He who works in the Lord, and directs his eye to the day of harvest says with Paul: I die daily, and quiets his heart in patience, being joyful in hope.
Gerock:Faiths song of triumph at the grave of the risen: O, Death, where is thy sting? Thy sting whereby thou, a. robbest me me of my dearest (1Co 15:52); b. and threatenest my own body (1Co 15:51); c. and frightenest my poor soul (1Co 15:56); d. and destroyest the work of my hands (1Co 15:58).
Luther:Thanks be unto God, etc. This may we also sing, and so keep perpetual Easter, that we may extol and praise God for such a victory, which was not achieved through us, nor won in fight (for it is too high and great), but has been graciously given to us of Godwho pitieth our sorrows out of which none could help us, and sent unto us His son, and let Him undertake the conflict. Sin, Death and Hell has He overcome, and given unto us the victory, so that we may say: It is our victory, so that we may accept it with earnestness, and not give God the lie, neither be found ungrateful for it, but maintain it with firm faith in our hearts, and strengthen ourselves therein, and always sing of this victory in Christ, and go on, joyful therein until we see Him also in our own body. To this, may God help us through His own dear Son, and to Him be all glory and praise forever and ever. Amen!
[Sermons.Manning:
1Co 15:51. The Commemoration of the faithful departed.Newton: 1Co 15:51. The general resurrection. I. The mystery. 1. Beyond the reach of fallen man to discover without a revelation from God. 2. Still unintelligible without a further revelation through the influence of the Spirit. II. What to be expecteduniversal changes. III. Suddenness of eventin a moment. IV. The grand preceding signalthe trumpet sound. Improvement. 1. A joyful day to believe 2. In view of it what manner of men ought we to be.
1Co 15:54. Death swallowed up in victory. How predicable of Christians. I. They were once dead in lawbut forgiven. II. Once dead in sinbut quickened. III. Once under the tyranny of Satanbut made conquerors over him. IV. Once subject to woes and sufferingsbut sorrow and sighing are turned to joy and gladness. V. Once reaped the bitter fruits of sinbut grace triumphs over every evil.1Co 15:55-57.Triumph over death and the grave. I. Death armed with a powerful sting. 1. What the sting Isaiah 2. How sharpened by the law. II. Death disarmed by the death of Christ. III. The doxologyemphatic in every word. 1. Thanks to GodHis work. 2. Who giveth us the victorya victory indeed. 3. Through Jesus Christ. This song best sung when the whole redeemed are collected together.Howe:
1Co 15:54. The Christians triumph over death. I. The explication of its rational import. 1. The importGods general determination to put a perpetual end to death. a. Death as here spoken of supposes a certain limited subject, viz.: such as are Christs. b. It extends to the whole of that subjectthe inner and the outward man. c. Presupposes a war. d. Where this war ends not in victory on the one side, it ends in victory on the other. 2. The reasonableness of the import. a. Gods glory requires it. b. The felicity of the redeemed requires it. II. The use of the doctrine. 1. If asserted to be believed. 2. Full of comfort; a. in reference to departed friends; b. in reference to our own death. III. A monition to us since spoken only of some and not of all. IV. This doctrine should cause us to abstain from rash censures of providence that God lets death reign over so great a part of His creation for so long a time. John Logan:1Co 15:55-57. The Christians victory over death. Christ sets us free: I. From the doubts and fears that are apt to perplex the mind from the uncertainty in which a future state is involved. II. From the apprehensions of wrath proceeding from the consciousness of sin. III. From the fears that arise in the mind upon the awful transition from this world to the next. Spurgeon:1Co 15:56-57. Thoughts on the last battle. I. The sting of deathSin. 1. Because it brought death into the world. 2. Because it is that which shall make death most terrible. 3. If sin in the retrospect be the sting of death, what must sin in the prospect be? II. The strength of sinthe Law. 1. In this respect that the law being spiritual it is quite impossible for us to be without sin. 2. It will not abate one tittle of its stern demands. 3. For every transgression it will exact a punishment. III. The victory of faith. 1. Christ has taken away the strength of sin in that He has removed the law. 2. In that, He has completely satisfied it by His perfect obedience. 3. By having brought life and immortality to light through the resurrection.
Footnotes:
[44]1Co 15:51.The Rec. is satisfactorily authenticated, [ , ]. The origin of the other readings is easily explained from the apparent difficulty of this. Lachmann [and Stanley] have [] , . Others have , . [The has in its favor A. C. (2d. hand), D. (2d and 3d hand), E. F. G. K. L. Sinait., Vulg., later Syr., Copt., and a few eccles. writers, hut against it B. C. (1st hand), D. (1st hand), the Syr. (Pesch.), Aeth., and Orig. Jerome testifies that in his day all the Latins had omnes quidem resurgemus, but that the Greeks were divided between omnes dormiemus, and non omnes dormiemus. Augustine also mentions that both Greeks and Latins were divided about it. It was very likely to have originated in an attempted conformity with the subsequent . For placing the before ., so that it may qualify that word, and not after, with the comma before it, so that it may quality ., we have B. D. (2d and 3d hand), E. K. L., almost all the cursives, with the Goth., Syr., (both), Copt., Aeth., Arab. versions, and many of the best Greek and Latin writers. Among the other MSS. there is an almost inextricable confusion, suggesting that they are not reliable. They appear to have sprung from the idea that otherwise Paul would assert (contrary to fact) that he, and those to whom he wrote, were not to die. See all the readings discussed elaborately in Reiche and Tischendorf.C. P. W.]
[45]1Co 15:52.Lachmann has , but the evidence for that reading is not quite convincing. [It is sustained by A. D. E. F. G., 2 cursives, Orig. (one ms.), Chrys. (one ms.), Damasc., Theophyl. (marg.); but B. C. K. L. M., Sinait., several copies of the Latin, Vulg. (resurgunt), Orig. (5 times). Dialog., Chrys. (one ms.), Cyr., Theodt., have .C. P. W.]
[46]1Co 15:54.The whole sentence . . . is omitted in C. (1st hand), Sinait., (1st hand), 2 cursives, the Vulg., Goth., Copt., Aeth. (both), Marcion (in Epiph.), Athan., Iren. (Lat.), Hilar., Aug. (once), Ambrst., Fulg., Oros., Bede. By A., the Arm., version, and some unimportant MSS., it is inserted after . . . .; D. (1st hand, not in the Lat. 1st hand), entirely omits this latter sentence. Doubtless by homoteleuton.C. P. W.]
[47]1Co 15:55.The and are arranged in the reverse order by a number of good MSS. [B. C. J. M. Sinait. (1st hand), Vulg., Copt. Aeth., Arm., Slav., Eus., Athan., Didym., Cyr., Damasc, Iren. (Lat.), Tert., Jer., Ambr.] This was done probably, to make the sentence conform to the Septuagint. Such, too, was doubtless the origin of the substitution of for the second [in A. (2d hand), K. L. M. Sinait., (3d hand), several cursives, the Goth., Syr. (both), Orig., Athan. (once), Cyr., Epiph. For twice we have B. C. D. E. F. G. I., 2 cursives, the Ital., Vulg., Copt., Aeth., Arm., Euseb., Athan. (once), Nyss., Iren. (Lat.), Tertul., Cypr., Ambr., August. Wordsworth, gives as a reason for the change of into , that the primitive Christians, who would not be surprised at a personification of , would have been shocked at such a bold apostrophe as the Apostle here derived from his Hebrew Scriptures to Hades, on the ground that it would countenance the heathen notion of a personal deity so named.C. P. W.]
[48][Calvin remarks: There is here no difference in the Greek MSS. [which is true, so far as those he had to deal with went], but in the Latin versions there are three different readings. The first is, We shall, indeed, all die, but we shall not all be changed. The second is, We shall, indeed, all rise again, but we shall not all be changed. [This is the reading of the Vulgate followed by Wickliffe and the Rheims version.] The third is, We shall not, indeed, all sleep, but we shall all be changed. This diversity he ascribes to the fact, that some readers, who are not the most discerning, dissatisfied with the true reading, ventured to conjecture a reading which was more approved by them].
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DISCOURSE: 1995
DEATH A CONQUERED ENEMY
1Co 15:51-58. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
THE doctrine of the resurrection was altogether unknown to the heathen world, and but imperfectly known even to the Jews themselves. The idea of bodies, once mouldered into dust and scattered over the face of the earth, being ever restored, and reunited to their kindred souls, appeared so visionary, as to be wholly inadmissible and incredible. But St. Paul shews, that the resurrection of our blessed Lord was a fact established beyond the possibility of doubt; and that he had risen as the first-fruits, which would assuredly be followed by an universal harvest [Note: ver. 20, 23.]. True it was that a great change would take place in the body, such as was necessary to fit it for its future state of existence: but still it would be the same body in reality, just as the wheat, which, when sown in the ground, first dies, and then rises substantially the same, though in a very different form [Note: ver. 3538.]. To the question, What shall be done with those who shall be living upon the earth at the last day? He answers, That they shall undergo a change equivalent to death and resurrection: and the manner in which this shall be effected he represents as a mystery, which in former ages had been wholly unknown, but which from inspiration he was now enabled to proclaim. However death had seemed hitherto to triumph over the many successive generations that had existed upon earth, there should at last be an end of his reign, and he himself should be triumphed over by all who belong to Christ.
That we may all have a fuller view of this mystery, we will endeavour to shew,
I.
The victory that awaits the Christian
Christians, like others, appear to be overcome by death
[They, as well as others, yield to the stroke of death. Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, all have died: two only of all the children of men have been exempted from the common lot: and the time is quickly coming when every one of us must die; (for the body is dead because of sin [Note: Rom 8:10.];) and must return to the dust from whence we sprang [Note: Gen 3:19.].]
But in due time they shall assuredly triumph over it
[It is the body only that death can reach: it cannot affect the believers soul: and it is for a time only that it can affect the body. When once the last day shall arrive, there will be an end of that empire which death has so widely extended. The bodies of the saints, of whom alone the Apostle here speaks, shall then be raised up, and with varied degrees of splendour shine forth anew [Note: ver. 41.]. They were sown in corruption, weakness, and dishonour, and they shall be raised in incorruption, power, and glory: from natural bodies, they shall be transformed to spiritual [Note: ver. 4244.], each one shining forth, as our Saviour himself at his transfiguration, like the sun in the firmament for ever and ever [Note: Compare Mat 13:43. with 17:2.]. Thenceforth shall death have no more dominion over them, any more than it has over our Lord himself [Note: Rom 6:9. with Rev 21:4.]: on the contrary, it shall itself be swallowed up in victory, as the prophet has said [Note: Isa 25:8.], and, as the Apostle elsewhere speaks, Mortality shall be swallowed up of life [Note: 2Co 5:4.].
By those also who shall be living at the time of our Lords advent, shall the same triumph be enjoyed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye shall they be changed, as soon as ever the last trump shall sound: as, in the case of those who have died, corruptible shall put on incorruption, so, in those who shall be found alive, their mortal shall put on immortality [Note: ver. 52, 53.], and their vile body shall in an instant be made like unto Christs glorious body [Note: Php 3:21.], even to that very body in which he now sits enthroned in glory, the blessed object of adoration to all the hosts of heaven.]
That the Christian may be encouraged the more confidently to look forward to that victory, we proceed to shew,
II.
How it is, that he is assured of it
It is sin that gives death its power
[If sin had never entered into the world, death would never have existed, or would have been only a translation from earth to heaven. This is plainly told us by St. Paul; By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, even upon those who have not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression [Note: Rom 5:12; Rom 5:14. with ver. 21, 22.]. The law which passed the sentence of death on Adam [Note: Gen 2:17.], still says to every child of man, The soul that sinneth, it shall die. And this law cannot be set aside: it is as immutable as God himself: and hence it is that sin is itself so powerful, and invests death also with such power over our fallen race.]
But the Lord Jesus Christ has taken away our sin
[He has put himself in our place and stead, and, as our Surety, has satisfied all the demands of the law. Did the law require the death of the offender? He has put himself in the place of sinners, and has borne the penalty for them. Would sin yet prevail to destroy the soul? He has expiated its guilt, and put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Must every one have a perfect righteousness before he can appear in the presence of a holy God? Christ has not only made an end of sin, but by his obedience unto death has brought in an everlasting righteousness [Note: Dan 9:24.], which he imputes to all them that believe [Note: Rom 3:22.]. Thus is death disarmed of its sting: for sin, which was its sting, is cancelled; and the law, from which sin derived its strength, is fulfilled: and the sentence denounced against us is reversed, so far at least as it is penal; insomuch that God may now be just, and yet the justifier of sinful men [Note: Rom 3:26.].]
Thus is death disarmed of its power
[Death, no longer envenomed by sin, is to be regarded only as a sleep, a falling asleep in Jesus. This enemy, this king of terrors, is turned into a friend, and may now be numbered amongst the richest treasures of the Christian [Note: 1Co 3:22.]. If we view it aright, it is only a friend who comes to draw aside the veil that hides the Saviour and all his glory from our eyes. What a blessed thought! O Christian, what joy should this thought impart unto thy soul! with what transport shouldest thou exclaim, Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! Come forward, Christian; put thy foot upon the neck of this conquered enemy: exult over him, as God himself instructs thee, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Where are now thy boasted triumphs? Instead of swallowing up me, thou shalt be swallowed up; and instead of casting me into the lake of fire, thou thyself shalt have that for thine only and unchangeable abode [Note: Rev 20:14.].]
Such is the victory that awaits thee. Think then,
III.
What exertions the prospect of it should call forth
Let the expectation of this triumph stimulate thee to prepare for it. Prepare for it by,
1.
A steadfast adherence to the faith
[Much will thy faith be tried: temptations from without and from within will assuredly assault thee: perhaps even the glorious truths contained in our text may be wrested from thee by thy great adversary, so that thou shalt be led to question the reality of them, or thine interest in them. But be steadfast, and immoveable; holding fast the profession of thy faith without wavering. Fight the good fight of faith: quit thyself like a man: whoever would move thee from the hope of the Gospel, withstand him: whoever would turn thee aside from the right path, or discourage thee in running thy heavenly race, regard him not; but run on with patience, looking unto Jesus, the Author and the Finisher of thy faith.]
2.
A diligent performance of thy duty
[The Lord has given thee a work to do: O engage in it with, all thy heart. Has he assigned thee any office whereby thou mayest be useful in advancing his kingdom in the world? Give thyself wholly to it. Do the interests of thine own soul call for thine attention? Forget all that is behind, and press forward for that which is before. Be not content with small measures of service; but seek to abound in the work of the Lord; and this, not on some particular occasions only, but always, from day to day, and from year to year, never being weary in well-doing, but exerting yourselves the more, in proportion as your time for performing it is cut short. Think what is that work where you may best serve and glorify your Lord; and make it your meat and drink to do it: yea, whatever thine hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might.]
3.
An assured expectation of thy reward
[Moses himself looked to the recompence of the reward, as did also the martyrs of old, who refused to accept deliverance from their tortures, that they might obtain a better resurrection. If you had no prospect of future happiness, there would be some reason for that Epicurean maxim, Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. But when you consider how short your present trials are, and how rich will be the recompence for all your labours, it were madness to draw back. Look at those who have already entered into their rest, and ask, Whether they repent of their former labours: or look at the glory that awaits thee, and then think whether the possession of it will not richly compensate all that thou canst do or suffer for thy Lord. The Lord is not unrighteous, that he will forget your works and labours of love: No: he has said, that you shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the dead; and he will with his own hand bestow the recompence: nor shall even a cup of cold water given for his sake lose its reward.]
Address
[Happy should we be, if death had this aspect upon all, and we had no occasion to change our voice in relation to it. But to the ungodly it is still an enemy: and over the unbelieving it will retain its dominion to all eternity. Yes, brethren; if we have not sought refuge in Christ from the curses of the broken law, we are yet in our sins, and must perish under the guilt of them for evermore. Is this your case? how terrible then must the thought of death be to you! To you, it will be as the opening of the prison doors to a criminal, that he may be led forth to execution. For a season indeed, your body shall sleep in the dust: but in what image shall it rise in the last day? What will be its feelings, when it shall be re-occupied by the soul, that now claims it as the partner of its former sins, and of all its future sorrows! How glad would it be, if it could take its position under rocks and mountains! Even now, the thought of death is terrible to the unbelieving soul, and the contemplation of eternity distressing. But let it not be always thus; let what you have heard of the Christians privileges stir you up to seek a participation of them. Remember, how it is that death must be disarmed of its sting: it is altogether by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as having fulfilled the law for you, and taken away your sins by the blood of his cross. Only look to him as dying for your sins, and rising again for your justification, and all shall yet be well: your souls shall live before him; because he liveth, you shall live also: and when he who is your life shall appear, ye also shall appear with him in glory.
But to those who profess to believe in Christ, we would also suggest a salutary caution. If the prospect of a glorious resurrection produce not its due effect upon you, you have reason to doubt whether you have indeed an inheritance beyond the grave. It is only in proportion as your faith is operative, that you can have any evidence of its being the faith of Gods elect. And how painful will it be, when on the verge of eternity, to have your soul harassed with doubts and fears about your eternal state! Do not, I beseech you, walk so carelessly as to endanger your final acceptance with God, or to make it doubtful to your own mind. What can be the effect of sin, but to fill your dying pillow with thorns? Never then trifle either with sin or duty: let the one be put away from you with all care, and the other be practised with all diligence: and seek of God the aid of his good Spirit, that you may so live as to enjoy the testimony of your own conscience, and so walk, that you may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
. But the miraculous and instantaneous change from mortality to immortality, which he here asserts, and which is to be wrought without passing through death, this is a mystery nowhere else spoken of. Reader! You and I find unceasing cause to bless God for Paul’s ministry. Where, and when, the Lord taught him this, whether when caught up to the third heaven, or in any of the other visions he was favored with, is not so material for us to know, as to have received his testimony, as the Lord commissioned him to deliver.
The song of triumph with which Paul closes this most blessed chapter, is what all true believers in Christ, with equal joy, are called upon to join in. And while we sing them, because all our triumphs are in Christ, let no one forget that they are the Lord’s own words, proclaimed in a way of Covenant promise, and which Paul, taught of the Lord, hath converted into an hymn of praise, as God’s promises in Christ, which are all yea and Amen, should be. See Hos 13:14 . Oh! for grace to join the holy song. Christ hath destroyed death by his death. He hath taken out the sting of death, which is sin, by taking it away, and healing the wounds of sin by his blood. Acquitted now, there can be no condemnation then. When a redeemed believer dies, he dies in Christ, and to Christ, and is one with Christ. Jesus speaks: Fear not I have the keys of hell and of death. Amen. Rev 1:18 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
Ver. 51. I show you a mystery ] Not known till now to any man living. This, likely, was one of those wordless words, , that Paul heard in his rapture, 2Co 12:4 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
51 .] He proceeds to reveal to them something of the process of the change at the resurrection-day. This he does under the name of a , a hidden doctrine (see reff., especially Rom.).
.] See var. readd.
Meyer maintains that the only rendering of the words which is philologically allowable (the ordinary one, regarding ( ) as = ( ), we shall not all sleep, being inadmissible, here and in other instances where it has been attempted, see Winer, edn. 6, 26. 1), is this, ‘ we all (viz. as in 1Th 4:15 , , in which number the Apostle firmly believed that he himself should be, see 2Co 5:1 ff. and notes) shall not sleep, but shall all be changed .’ But we may observe that this would commit the Apostle to the extent of believing that not one Christian would die before the ; and that it is besides not necessary, for the emphasis is both times on ‘( All of us ) shall not sleep, but ( all of us ) shall be changed :’ i.e. ‘the sleep of death cannot be predicated of (all of us), but the resurrection-change can .’ See also Winer, 61. 5 f, and Moulton’s note, p. 695.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Co 15:51-52 . This bodily change, indispensable in view of the incompatibility just affirmed, is the object of a momentous revelation communicated to P., to which he calls our earnest attention: “Lo, I tell you a mystery!” On , see note to 1Co 2:1 . P. began by demonstrating the historical fact of Christ’s resurrection (1Co 15:1-11 ); he then reasoned upon it, in its bearings on religion and nature (1Co 15:12-49 ); now he adds a new specific revelation to crown his teaching. In doing so, P. challenges his opponents in the right of his inspiration and authority, hitherto in the background in this chap. 1Co 15:15 only vindicated his honesty .
In 1Co 15:51 b (required by 50 and repeated in 52) bears the stress; to it the first (reiterated with emphasis) looks forward; is parenthetical: “We shall all not sleep, but we shall all be changed”. is interpreted by of 1Co 15:53 and of Phi 3:21 . As much as to say: “Our perishable flesh and blood, whether through death or not, must undergo a change”. That such a change is impending for the dead in Christ is evident from the foregoing argument (see esp. 22 f., 36, 42 f.); P. adds to this the declaration that the change will be universal, that it will extend to those living when the Last Trumpet sounds (1Co 15:52 ), amongst whom he then hoped that many of the present generation would be found: cf. 1Co 1:7 ; also 1Th 4:15 ff., where the like is affirmed . This hope dictates the interjected , which disturbs the grammar of the sentence and necessitates the contrastive attached to the repeated (see txtl. note; Wr [2564] , p. 695; also El [2565] ad loc [2566] ). There is no need to suppose a trajection of (as if for , or .), nor any diff [2567] between the sense of . in 1Co 15:51-52 : the certainty of change in all who shall “inherit incorruption” is declared (1Co 15:51 ), and the assurance is given that while this change takes place in “the dead” who are “raised incorruptible,” at the same time “we” (the assumed living) shall undergo a corresponding change (52; cf. 2Co 5:2 ff.). Thus in “all” believers, whether sleeping or waking when Christ’s trumpet sounds, the necessary development will be effected (1Co 15:53 f.). The critical moment is defined by three vivid phrases: (cl [2568] Gr [2569] , ), ( in ictu oculi , Vg [2570] ; in a twinkling ), the first two describing the instantaneousness , and the last (with allusion perhaps to the saying of Mat 24:31 : cf. 1Th 4:16 ) the solemn finality of the transformation. The former idea is emphasized, possibly, to preclude the fear of a slow painful process. The was the wartrumpet, used for signals and commands ( cf. , 1Th 4:16 ); and ( sc . ) is indef. in subject, according to military idiom ( cf. Xen., Anab ., I., ii., 17). 1 Thess. iv. identifies the “trumpet” with the “archangel’s voice”: any such description is of course figurative.
[2564] Winer-Moulton’s Grammar of N.T. Greek (8th ed., 1877).
[2565] C. J. Ellicott’s St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians .
[2566] ad locum , on this passage.
[2567] difference, different, differently.
[2568] classical.
[2569] Greek, or Grotius’ Annotationes in N.T.
[2570]
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Behold. App-133.:2.
shew = tell.
mystery = secret. App-193.
sleep = be sleeping. App-171.
be changed. Greek. allasao. See Act 6:14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
51.] He proceeds to reveal to them something of the process of the change at the resurrection-day. This he does under the name of a , a hidden doctrine (see reff., especially Rom.).
.] See var. readd.
Meyer maintains that the only rendering of the words which is philologically allowable (the ordinary one, regarding () as = (),-we shall not all sleep, being inadmissible, here and in other instances where it has been attempted, see Winer, edn. 6, 26. 1), is this, we all (viz. as in 1Th 4:15, ,-in which number the Apostle firmly believed that he himself should be, see 2Co 5:1 ff. and notes) shall not sleep, but shall all be changed. But we may observe that this would commit the Apostle to the extent of believing that not one Christian would die before the ;-and that it is besides not necessary, for the emphasis is both times on -(All of us) shall not sleep, but (all of us) shall be changed: i.e. the sleep of death cannot be predicated of (all of us), but the resurrection-change can. See also Winer, 61. 5 f, and Moultons note, p. 695.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Co 15:51. , you) Do not suppose, that you know all things.-, I say) prophetically: 1Co 13:2 : 1Th 4:15.- , , we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed) The Latins read with general consent; Omnes quidem resurgemus, sed non omnes immutabimur, We shall indeed all rise, but we shall not all be changed, and Tertullian and Rufinus and others besides follow this reading. And yet the Latin translator does not seem to have read the Greek different from our Greek copies, but to have expressed the sense, as he indeed understood it, rather than the words. For this is his common practice in this epistle, as when 1Co 12:10; 1Co 12:28, he translated , words, and on the other hand 1Co 14:10 , tongues, he seems therefore to have translated , as if it had been , that is, we shall rise again. Hence it followed, that he presently after supplied not, for the sake of the antithesis, as he had suppressed not, chap. 1Co 9:6 : and here also Tertullian follows his footsteps. Moreover from the Latin the word has been fabricated in the Veles. and (a word which Paul does not use in this whole chapter) is a correction by the first interpolator of the Clar. MS. Some of the Greeks have , ; whence from , was easily produced. Indeed in this verse the apostle wished to deny nothing whatever concerning the change, but to affirm it, and to bring forward the mystery. The reading of the text remains, which is not unknown even to the Latin copies, quoted by Jerome from Didymus.[149] Moreover each of the two clauses is universal. All indeed, namely we, from whom the dead are presently after contradistinguished, shall not sleep; but all, even we the same persons, shall be changed; the subject of each of the two enunciations is the same: comp. , taken universally, 1Co 16:12; Rom 9:33; Eph 5:5; Rev 22:3; Act 11:8. The expression does not so much refer to the very persons, who were then alive, and were waiting for the consummation of the world, but to those, who are to be then alive in their place, 1Co 15:52 at the end, 1Th 4:15, note.-, we shall be changed) While the soul remains in the body, the body from being animal [natural] will become spiritual.
[149] Tisch. reads , , with B (from its silence), some Greek MSS. mentioned in Jerome 1,794c, 810c, also MSS. of Acacius and Didymus in Jerome 1,795e, 799b, both Syr. and Memph. Versions, Orig. 1,589f, and quoted in Jerome 1,804c. Lachm. reads [] , , with CGg, Orig. 2,552bc, also Greek MSS. mentioned in Jerome 1,794c, 810c, also Didymus mentioned in Jerome 1,795d, and in 1,798b, Acacius, bishop of Csarea, who mentions it as the reading of very many MSS. A reads . .-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Co 15:51
1Co 15:51
Behold, I tell you a mystery:-The mystery is how this change is to take place, for it had not hitherto been made known. The disclosure to which reference was made, and the corresponding one in 1Th 4:15, was made through Paul.
We all shall not sleep,-[This refers to the death of the body, but only of such as are Christs; yet never of Christ himself, though he is said to be the firstfruits of them that are asleep. (1Co 15:20). It is used of saints who departed before Christ came (Mat 27:52; Act 13:26); of Lazarus while Christ was yet upon the earth (Joh 11:11); and of believers since the ascension (1Th 4:14-15; Act 7:60; 2Pe 3:4).]
but we shall all be changed,-Those who die before the coming of the Lord will not fail of the blessings of Christs eternal kingdom, and those who are alive when he comes again will not be left in their corruptible bodies. Both shall be changed, and thus prepared for the heavenly state.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The Rapture Of The Saints
1Co 15:51-58
Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. (vv. 51-58)
With these words the apostle Paul brings to a close his great treatise on the resurrection, first dealing with that of Christ and then with that of the saints. In this particular section he shows us that while all will have part in the glorious event at the resurrection of the saints, yet some will not pass through death, but will be changed instead of being raised. We noticed in the closing verses of the previous portion the statement that, Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God refers, of course, to that future reign when the authority of God will be manifested in heaven and over all the earth. The kingdom of God will consist of two spheres. Our Lord Jesus says, Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Mat 13:43). Those are the heavenly saints in the kingdom day. Then we also read of people brought into this blessing here on earth during the kingdom. They, of course, will be in bodies of flesh and blood. The apostle is here considering the heavenly side of the kingdom when he says, Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. As we have remarked before, those that are accounted worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: but are as the angels of God in heaven because they are the children of the resurrection. That will be the heavenly aspect of the kingdom. Observe, the apostle does not say, Neither flesh nor blood, but says, Flesh and blood. That is, our bodies in their present condition as sustained by blood are not suited for heaven, for the coming glorious kingdom, and therefore we must be changed. How will this change take place?
Behold, I show you a mystery. We have often pointed out that a mystery in the New Testament is not something mysterious and difficult to understand. The Greek word is almost anglicized here, and does not mean something strange and hard to comprehend, but a mystery is something revealed only to the initiated. Some of you have been initiated into some secret society, and have not discovered anything very mysterious, but you have found that there are certain things on the inside that folk like myself on the outside do not know anything about. That is the real use of the word here. It is a secret not known to the generality of the people, but made known to the initiated, and all Gods beloved people are looked upon by Him as His initiated ones. The only lodge I have ever joined is The Grand Army of the Redeemed. I was initiated into that by being born again, and then the Holy Spirit conducted me from chair to chair and revealed the mysteries as you have them here in the Word of God.
There are a number of these sacred secrets which were kept from the people of God in past dispensations, but are made known now in the glorious dispensation of the Holy Spirit. One of them is this mystery of the first resurrection and the rapture of the living saints. Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. This is a very remarkable statement. We often hear it said that, There is nothing more certain than death and taxes. Taxes seem to be quite certain, but I am glad to say that death is not absolutely certain for the Christian. Well, someone says, doesnt the Word say, It is appointed unto man once to die? That is the divine appointment for man as such, but there will be a generation of Gods redeemed people who will be exempt from that. We shall not all sleep. He uses the word sleep in place of die, for death to the believer is the putting of the tired, weary, worn body to sleep until the Lord Jesus comes to waken it again. It is only the body that sleeps. The real man, the spirit and soul, is absent from the body and present with the Lord, taken home to be with Christ, which is far better, so that the bodies of our friends in Christ who have died are sleeping, but they themselves are with Christ, wonderfully happy in His presence. The apostle Paul gives us an idea of their state and condition when he speaks of being caught up to the third heaven. That is the immediate dwelling place of God. The first heaven is the atmospheric heaven, the second is the stellar or the starry heaven, and the third is Gods dwelling place.
The apostle had the experience of being caught up into the third heaven, and he was so enraptured that he could not tell whether he was in the body or out of the body. That teaches us several things. First, if Paul was in the body, his body was no clog upon him, and when we are in the presence of the Lord in the body our bodies will be no hindrance to us as they often are now. But if Paul was taken out of the body, then he did not miss his body. He was just as conscious out of as he could be in it. Some say that it is impossible to live out of the body, but it is no more impossible than it is for the works of a watch to go on running without the case. The body dies, it is put to sleep, but the believer lives on, Absent from the body,present with the Lord (2Co 5:8). In the first resurrection the body is raised in glory, and the spirit comes to dwell in the body again. That is the state of the believer when Christ calls us forth from the tomb.
How many have questioned these words, We shall not all sleep. It is a remarkable fact that in the Douay Version, which is read by a large section of the professed church of Christ, this passage reads, We shall all rise again, but we shall not all be changed. How it ever got into the text perplexes people, but that is exactly what is written in the Vatican manuscript. But older ones read like the translation we have here, We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. The manuscript of the fourth century, from which the Douay Version was translated, shows how unbelievers had already come in; some scribe tampered with the text, and if it were not that we have older manuscripts giving it as here we might be perplexed about it. But we shall not all sleep, and there may be some of us in this generation who will be living when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. But whether living or dead we shall all be changed.
Every one of us must undergo the glorious change in order to have part in the heavenly side of the kingdom, and that shall take place instantly, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. I cannot think of anything much faster than that. It does not say, In the winking of an eye, but in the twinkling of an eye. As quickly as a gleam of light shines in the eye, so quickly shall we be changed at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have often tried to think of what that would mean. There are dear children of God lying on hospital beds, weak and suffering, enduring days of pain and nights of anguish, and they are crying in the distress of their souls, O Lord, how long? One moment enduring excruciating pain, and the next rising to meet the Lord in the air in a body that can never suffer again. Then there are some of Gods people whose minds have failed because of the stress of things, perhaps shut away in some sanitarium, possibly melancholy and in gloom, maybe imagining that God has forsaken them and that there is no hope for them. The poor brain has given way completely, and yet the next moment with intelligence such as the angels have, as they find themselves in their glorified bodies looking into the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a marvelous hope it is! No wonder the apostle calls it this blessed hope. We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.
When will that be? At the last trump. How may we understand that? There are those who have attempted to link this trump with the trumpet of the seventh angel in Revelation. In that book you have a series of seven trumpets, and when they are blown, various judgments are poured out upon the earth, and when the seventh is blown, the kingdom of God is ushered in. Some have thought the apostle is referring to that trumpet, thus indicating that the church of God would be here on earth going through all the tribulation and distress, only to be saved out of it when the seventh trumpet is blown. But the book of Revelation was not written until approximately thirty years after the writing of this epistle, so that there is no possible way by which there could be a connection between these trumpets. And when we turn to 1 Thessalonians we find that this trumpet is called, The trump of God (4:16). It is not the trumpet of an angel. Why is the trump of God here called the last trump? That expression was very familiar to the people who lived in Pauls day. It was in common use in connection with the Roman army.
When a Roman camp was about to be broken up, whether in the middle of the night or in the day, a trumpet was sounded. The first blast meant, Strike tents and prepare to depart. The second meant, Fall into line, and when what was called the last trump sounded it meant, March away. The apostle uses that figure, and says that when the last trump of this age of grace sounds, then we shall be called away to be forever with the Lord. We have heard the first. Many of you remember when you were just part and parcel of the world, you were living with the world and like the world, and you were settling down here, but you heard the gospel trumpet awakening you out of your sleep. And then I trust you have heard the second trumpet calling you to take your places in fellowship with Gods beloved people as soldiers in this scene. And now what wait we for? For the last trump, when we shall be summoned, not to march away nor yet to fly away, but when we shall be caught up togetherto meet the Lord in the air (1Th 4:17). When will it take place? It is an undated event in the ways of God with men. It may take place today, it may be tonight; but whether at midnight or in the morning or in the daytime it will make no difference to us for we have been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible. I do not need to dwell on that.
And we [who are living] shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. You will notice that you have the two groups. This corruptible-that refers to the dead-must put on incorruption. The dead whose bodies have corrupted away will be raised in incorruptible bodies. But the living, this mortal, those that are alive but subject to death if time goes on, shall put on immortality. This is the promise that we have in Rom 8:10, where we read, If Christ be in you, the body is dead. A little word is omitted there which may be added to make it more clear. The body is [still] dead because of sin. You may be a believer, but your body is still under the Adamic sentence, Dying thou shalt die. But the spirit is alive and is the pledge of the new life yet to be. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you (Rom 8:11). I know that some have taught that the indwelling Spirit gives new life to the mortal body right here and now. But that is what the apostle denies in the tenth verse, If Christ be in you, the body is [still] dead because of sin. But if the Spirit-the Spirit of life-dwells in you, someday He shall quicken into newness of life your mortal body by the Spirit that dwelleth within you. When will that be? At the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto Him.
Then we read, This mortal must put on immortality. Notice the terms mortal and immortal. These refer to the body; never to the spirit or soul. The everlasting existence of man is taught in Scripture, but immortality is a blessing that will be revealed when our Lord comes.
When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. And now he goes back and quotes from the book of the prophet Hosea, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? (13:14). Death comes in and takes from us our nearest and dearest, and our hearts are pained because of the separation. But if we know Christ, and if our loved ones were in Christ, the sting of death is gone, and we are looking on to a glorious reunion when Jesus comes again. What a wonderful event it will be when saints who have been separated here on earth will recognize one another as we are caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Then we can sing, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? That which makes death terrible to the unsaved is sin-The sting of death is sin-but if we know that sin has been put away, that sin has been purged by the precious atoning blood of Christ, then that sting of death is gone.
The strength of sin is the law. Do you believe that? I wonder whether some of you have not thought that the law is the strength of holiness. You have imagined that the way to be holy was to be under the law, and you have tried to obtain sanctification by keeping the law. It says here, The strength of sin is the law, not, The strength of holiness is the law. What does he mean? The law simply stirs up everything in the human heart that is opposed to God, and instead of producing holiness the result is greater transgression. That is what the apostle puts before the Galatians and the Romans. The law never produces holiness. It is the heart occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ that produces holiness. When you have seen that the law condemns, but that Christ has borne the condemnation for you, then you can look away to Him, and as you are occupied with Him you will be a holy man or woman. You cannot make yourself holy by rules and regulations. Not even Gods law given at Sinai has the ability to make men holy, but the living glorified Christ can change people into His image as they are taken up with Him, so that they become holy.
Paul concludes this section by saying, Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Death may seem for the moment to triumph. It looked like triumph when death came into your home. I felt it was a triumph of death when it came years ago into our home and took one after another whom I loved most tenderly, but as I look on to the glorious future and realize that death is to be swallowed up in victory at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, I can already claim by faith that conquest over it and exclaim, Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. So the verse with which the section closes comes home to every one of us, Therefore-because these things are true-my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for asmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. They tell me that occupation with these precious truths that have to do with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ may have a tendency to make people heady and theoretical, and no longer useful in the church of God here on earth, but I do not know anything that should so grip the soul and put one to work for God as the knowledge of the truth we have just been considering.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
mystery
(See Scofield “Mat 13:11”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
I show: 1Co 2:7, 1Co 4:1, 1Co 13:2, Eph 1:9, Eph 3:3, Eph 5:32
We shall not: 1Co 15:6, 1Co 15:18, 1Co 15:20, 1Th 4:14-17
changed: Phi 3:21
Reciprocal: 2Sa 7:12 – sleep Job 14:14 – will I wait Dan 12:2 – many Mat 13:11 – mysteries Mat 27:52 – slept Joh 11:11 – sleepeth Act 7:60 – he fell Rom 8:11 – he that raised 1Co 11:30 – sleep 1Co 14:2 – howbeit 1Co 15:57 – giveth 1Th 4:15 – which are 1Th 4:16 – and the 1Pe 4:5 – that
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Co 15:51. Mystery is from MU-STERION, and Thayer’s second definition is, “a hidden purpose or counsel; secret will.” It does not necessarily mean something that is complicated or technical in its nature, but only that it has not been hitherto made known. Sleep is a figurative term that is defined in the lexicon, “to die.” The same truth is stated in 1Th 4:14-15. In each of these passages the connection shows Paul is sneaking only of faithful disciples of Christ. We thus have the precious information that as long as the earth exists there will be those who are true to the Lord, and hence that saving faith “shall not perish from the earth.” But though Christians living at the coming of Christ will not die, they will have to be changed, as the preceding verse states that a fleshly body cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Here Is another point against the heresy that our bodies will not rise nor go to Heaven. These Christians will not die, hence their soul and body will never separate. Yet they are to be taken to be ever with the Lord as Paul asserts in the pas sage cited in 1 Thessalonians. And if God can and will convert the flesh and blood bodies of these living Christians into a spiritual form that will be fit to “ever be with the Lord,” it is foolish to deny His power to effect the same change in the bodies of those who are “dead in Christ.”
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Co 15:51. Behold, I tell you a mysteryin the sense so often explaineda thing hitherto undisclosed, and even now known only by revelation. The disclosure here referred to, and the corresponding one in 1Th 4:15, appears to have been made exclusively to the apostle himself
We shall not all sleepthe sleep of death; for a generation of believers will be alive and remain when the Lord comes (1Th 4:15),but we shall all be changed[1]from mortality to immortality, from corruption to incorruption; a change which in the living will be equivalent to both death and resurrection all but instantaneously occurring, while they are standing, it may be, on their feet, expecting nothing, and working their ordinary work.
[1] The absurd reading, We shall all sleep, but we shall not all be changed, is the reading, nevertheless, of two of the oldest MSS., of two later Uncials, and of one good Cursive. Lachmann prints it (though only Touching for its being the traditional text of the fourth century); and what is strange. Stanley has it in his text.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Here the apostle answers a third objection: some might say, What shall become of those who shall be found alive at Christ’s coming?
He answers, they shall not die or sleep, but yet shall undergo a change as well as those that rise from the dead, these shall have flesh and blood changed into spiritual bodies, as well as they, and of mortal be made immortal, of corruptible become incorruptible, and all this in a moment of time. Christ’s powerful voice will be like a trumpet, calling men together; and the dead shall be raised, and living saints changed into an incorruptible state.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Vv. 51, 52. Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52. in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
The word , behold, is a call to attention, and the term , mystery, justifies the call. It here denotes a special point in God’s plan, which the apostle could only know by revelation; comp. the , by the word of the Lord, 1Th 4:15.
Of the three readings presented by the documents in the second part of 1Co 15:51, the reading of the Sinaticus and the Alexandrinus would signify, that we shall all die until Christ come again, but then we shall not all participate in the glorious resurrection granted to believers. This idea is absolutely away from the line of the apostle’s present thought. It is a mistake to introduce here the distinction between those who are saved and those who are not. Perhaps it is the error made in which continues here, as if the matter in question were a practical exhortation. The one thing Paul wishes to explain is what will take place in believers who shall be alive at that time. The same holds of the Western reading in the Cantabrigiensis, and the Itala: We shall all be raised, but we shall not all be changed. Paul would thus remind his readers that along with the resurrection of the righteous, there is also that of the wicked, which however will not be a change, that is to say, a glorious transformation. This thought is still more wide of the context than the preceding. Moreover, the two readings and the two ideas are both condemned by 1Co 15:52; for in this verse it is not the saved and the condemned who are contrasted, but the living transformed and the dead who shall be raised. Hofmann has attempted to make this last reading admissible by connecting the negative with the first proposition. The meaning would be: Undoubtedly we shall not all be raised (those who have not passed through death), but we shall all be changed, either by resurrection or by transformation. But in this case the end of 1Co 15:52 would be merely a superfluous repetition; then the position of the negative at the end of the first proposition ( ) is a form without example in the New Testament.
There remains the reading of the T. R., which has on its side the Vaticanus, the Peschito, and the Byz., according to which the apostle says: We shall not all die, there will be living Christians when the Lord comes again,but we shall all require to be changed: living believers by transformation, the dead by resurrection. For it is impossible to enter into the kingdom of glory with this earthly body, composed of materials subject to corruption (1Co 15:50). This idea is obviously connected in the closest possible way with that of 1Co 15:50, and leads directly to that of 1Co 15:52. There is therefore no room for doubt as to the correctness of this reading. Moreover, Reiche has clearly proved that it was the prevailing reading down to Origen, and that variants do not begin to appear till about the end of the 3rd century (see Heinrici). Meyer has raised two difficulties, not to the reading in itself, but to the meaning it gives. According to him: (1) this meaning would have required the negative to be placed before , all, and not before the verb; for, strictly speaking, the clause means, not: Some only shall die, not all, but: not a single Christian shall die; (2) the verb , we shall be changed, cannot, according to 1Co 15:52, contain the two notions of resurrection and transformation; it denotes only the second. Meyer therefore thinks that the meaning is this: All of us (whether myself, Paul, or the other believers presently alive) shall not have to pass through death; there is not one of us who shall die; but yet we must all be changed (by transformation). If we are resolved to make Paul guilty of an absurdity, it is enough indeed thus to press the form of the phrase. But it is amply proved that in the New Testament, as in the translation of the LXX., the position of the is not so rigorously observed as in the classic style, a fact arising from the well-known Hebrew usage of connecting with the person the negative relating to the verb; comp. Rom 3:20. Thus Num 23:13, Balak, meaning to say to Balaam: Thou shalt see part of the Israelites, but thou shalt not see them all, expresses himself in these terms: , , which, taken strictly, would mean: All of them thou shalt not see, that is to say: Thou shalt see none of them; a sense evidently contrary to Balak’s thought. On the other hand, Jos 11:13 and Rom 12:4, which are sometimes quoted, seem to me to prove nothing at all. For the meaning of the verb , to be changed, see on 1Co 15:52.
Vv. 52. Paul here describes the change which must infallibly be wrought: he distinguishes the two forms in which it will take place. The two expressions , an indivisible moment, and , literally: a movement of the eyelid, denote the suddenness with which the event will happen. Then the apostle indicates the signal by which it will be proclaimed: the last trump. It has been alleged that he had in mind a real trumpet; as if the apostle could have imagined that the sound of a metal instrument could penetrate to the ears of the dead reduced to dust! He thereby understands a Divine signal, the nature of which is incomprehensible, and which he describes by a figure taken from Israelitish usages. It was enjoined on the sons of Aaron, Num 10:2-10, to sound the trumpet in order to call the people together, to strike their tents, or to announce the feast. Now the Advent is the time of the most solemn reunion, of the last departure, of the most glorious feast. This signal is called in 1Th 4:16 : an archangel’s voice, a trump of God. On Sinai the presence of the Lord and of His angels was manifested by noises similar to the sound of the horn. Jesus Himself made use of the figure of the trumpet to indicate the signal which shall gather together His elect from the four corners of the earth. By calling this trumpet the last, Paul does not refer either to the seven trumpets of Jericho, or to the seven of the Apocalypse, or to the seven which the Rabbins have imagined, and which, according to them, must give the signal for each of the seven phases of the act of resurrection. Neither does the term signify, as has been thought, the trumpet which brings in the last phase of the earthly economy. The term last necessarily supposes trumpets anterior to this. I think the apostle means by it the manifestations of the Divine will given to the beings of the invisible world, and on which depend the decisive crises of the kingdom of God on the earth; comp. Zec 9:14. The trumpets of the Apocalypse come under this category, but they do not exhaust it.
The apostle adds , for the trumpet shall sound, and it has been thought that he does so to materialize the signal. It has not been perceived that the words are closely connected with what follows, and that they serve to indicate how completely simultaneous shall be the signal with its double effect mentioned in the two following propositions: the resurrection of dead believers and the transformation of believers still in life.
There is no difficulty in taking the word shall be changed here in a more restricted sense than in 1Co 15:51; for here it is no longer contrasted with sleeping, but with being raised. Resurrection and transformation being the two forms of the renewal of the body, the verb , to be changed, may either comprehend both of them, or specially denote the second, when it requires a particular term.
By the pronoun we, the apostle understands all believers who shall be alive at the time of Christ’s return, and he ranks himself with them contingently; for as he does not know its precise date, it is natural for him, being among the living, to put himself rather among them than in the other class. To rank himself with the dead would have been to say that the Advent would not happen till after his death, and consequently so far to fix its date. In the parallel passage of Thessalonians (1Co 4:15) he explains himself more clearly: We, says he, that are alive, are left unto the coming of the Lord. These last words are remarkable. If they are not altogether superfluous, they must serve to define the preceding expression: We that live, in the sense: Those of us believers that are alive, that remain, not then, but at the time of the Advent. That Paul was not sure of being one of these appears from 1Co 15:30-31; then from 1Co 6:14, where he ranks himself among the raised; and from Php 1:20-21; Php 2:17, where he speaks of his death as an impending possibility. Paul knew that, but not when, Christ should return; and he also knew that, according to Christ’s own precept, every believer should live in the attitude of a servant waiting for his master, and be ever ready to receive him (Luk 12:36). Here we see the servant: nothing could be more in keeping with this direction of the Lord than the position taken by the apostle in our passage.
Thus has been demonstrated the possibility of the resurrection, and, as an appendix and confirmation, the necessity of a transformation even for those who shall not have had to pass through the dissolution of death. Now the apostle places the reader face to face with this great hope in its entirety, and closes his dissertation on the subject by celebrating the hope, uttering, as it were, a discourse in a tongue, with himself for an interpreter.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Behold, I tell you a mystery [a secret not previously revealed]: We all shall not sleep [die], but we shall all be changed,
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
GLORIFICATION ENTERED BY TRANSLATION AND RESURRECTION
51. Behold, I speak to you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, i. e., not all die, because the Bible says sleep where we say die. Hence the glorious consolation that some of us will enjoy the honor of translation like Enoch and Elijah. But we shall all be changed.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 51
Sleep; die.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
15:51 {29} Behold, I shew you a {d} mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
(29) He goes further, declaring that it will come to pass that those who will be found alive in the latter day will not descend into that corruption of the grave, but will be renewed with a sudden change, which change is very necessary. And he further states that the certain enjoying of the benefit and victory of Christ, is deferred to that latter time.
(d) A thing that has been hid, and never known before now, and therefore worthy that you give good care to it.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
"Behold" or "Listen" grabs the reader’s attention and announces something important. Paul was about to explain something never before revealed, a mystery (Gr. mysterion; cf. Mat 13:11; Rom 11:25; Rom 16:25; 1Co 2:7; 1Co 4:1; 1Co 13:2; 1Co 14:2; Eph 1:9; Eph 3:3-4; Eph 3:9; Eph 5:32; Eph 6:19; et al.). He had previously written that at the Rapture dead Christians would rise before God will catch living Christians up to meet the Lord in the air (1Th 4:15-17). He had just revealed that resurrection bodies will be different from our present bodies: spiritual rather than natural (1Co 15:35-39). Now he revealed that living believers translated at the Rapture would also receive spiritual bodies. Three key New Testament passages that deal with the Rapture are Joh 14:1-3, 1Co 15:51-53, and 1Th 4:13-18.
Not every Christian will die before he or she receives a new body, but every one must experience this change, even the "spiritual" Corinthians. Whether we are alive or dead when the Rapture takes place we will all receive spiritual bodies at that moment. "All" negates the doctrine of the partial rapture of the church, the view that only watchful Christians will participate in the Rapture.